


The Portal Between Worlds

by NeutronStarChild



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Consensual Sex, Ghostbusters References, Kick Ass Women, Multi, Portals, Romance, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:01:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 39,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27276928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeutronStarChild/pseuds/NeutronStarChild
Summary: Inuyasha just wants to get home, and will do anything to figure out how to do it, even if it hurts people. And the book he has seems to carry all the answers. He just has to make a portal big enough, and Onigumo seems all too keen to help (even as Inuyasha hates him). Kagome just wanted to make an extra buck (and maybe also find out if demons lived in New York), much to Kikyo’s chagrin. When all of their worlds collide, not one, buttwoworlds are in danger for their survival. What happens when the final portal opens, allowing an unknowable horror to be unleashed? Who you gonna call?Amazing accompanying artwork commission byi-dream-of-soup
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, Kagura/Kikyou (InuYasha), Miroku/Sango (InuYasha)
Comments: 195
Kudos: 75
Collections: Divergent Adventures of Inuyasha





	1. The First Portal

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by [Fawn_Eyed_Girl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fawn_Eyed_Girl) and [Ruddcatha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruddcatha)

“Shut the fuck up. I know what I’m doing.” Silver hair flowed from under the beanie that he wore when he was tired of the feel of his concealment charm. Sweat beaded on his brow and dripped into his golden eyes.

“But this is the fifth attempt to make a working prototype! The instructions were very…” The answering voice came out more as a hiss than a whisper, from a man in a heather hooded sweatshirt shaded darker from his perspiration.

“Then why don’t _you_ try reverse-engineering a _theory,_ Onigumo?” The silver-haired man snarled, his clawed hands delicately curled around the copper coil he needed to solder into place.

“Who was it that found _you that book_ , Inuyasha?” Onigumo rasped, truly a hiss this time around. “Who found you a way back to your world?”

Inuyasha growled in response. He didn’t want to talk to Onigumo anymore. He wanted to _work._ And every moment he spent with the small rat-like man with the sunken gray eyes and the stringy black hair tore a little bit more of his soul away. He couldn’t explain how the fuck a human, especially one with no spiritual power, could be so fucking _draining,_ but Onigumo was.

He never did quite understand how Onigumo _knew_ what Inuyasha was, or how he’d convinced him to keep trying, or how the man had found the book with all the answers. All that mattered was that for the first time in ten fucking years, Inuyasha felt hope again. Even as the rest of his life force was drained by Onigumo, his hope that he’d finally see his home again, his _family again,_ grew.

Ten fucking years. Ten years ago Inuyasha was ripped out of his world, away from his family and deposited cruelly into a new world, the _human_ world, on the other side of the barrier. Inuyasha still had moments that the memory of that trip would eat him alive.It invaded his mind with such power that it drowned out everything else: the feeling of the tug that invaded his gut, the feeling of sizzling pain flooding over him, the moment he landed on the ground in an entirely alien place. The moment… he realized that he couldn’t go home.

He’d landed in New York City, and he thanked his lucky stars that his mother had insisted on teaching him _her_ language—English. Because that was what all the fucking people in that place spoke. He remembered people laughing at his ears and asking him “where the convention was;” he remembered how fast he got his ears under a hat, how hard it was to figure out how to get a job and a life.

Ten fucking years ago. Inuyasha was brought into a world indifferent to him, and he had to learn to survive. He quickly learned that he was “undocumented”, but that New York had lots of “undocumented” people. He learned that the only features that truly set him apart were his ears and his claws, so he wore a cap and he trimmed his claws every morning. He learned that his strength made it easy for him to find work, because he could do labor of 10 men ( _keh_ , probably more, but he didn’t want them to figure out just how strong he was).

Two months after he landed in the world he never wanted to see, Inuyasha had an apartment, a routine, and a quest. He stood on the corners with other “undocumented” and waited to be picked up for construction jobs. He learned to speak Spanish, to find out how often he was being ripped off. He learned to go unnoticed, and even started to dye his hair (the smell of black hair dye still burned his nostrils and upset his stomach).

Six months into his imprisonment in the wrong world and he’d found regular gigs with employers that didn’t rip him off. He’d gotten himself a library card, and upgraded from a dingy room in the Bronx to a reasonable apartment in Alphabet City, and he’d started studying to create concealment charms.

Within a year, he had a concealment charm that worked. The world he was stuck in did not have demons, so he never had to disguise his yōki, only those features that marked him as demonic (though he did it anyway; one could never be too careful). Indeed, he’d managed to use his power enhanced by a charm to look entirely as he did on his human night. (Well, that was _one_ benefit to this world. No one knew demons, so no one knew half-demons. He didn’t constantly get ridiculed for only being “half.”)

Now though, as Inuyasha worked the odd jobs he needed to make a living (half-demons ate a _lot_ , so it was lucky that he loved the dollar-a-dozen instant ramens), he dedicated all of his remaining time to figuring out how to _get home_.

Where the concealment charm had been simple, finding a way to open a portal to the other world was impossible. He _wished_ he’d talked more to his mother about her own journey from the human world to the demon. Wished he’d been paying closer attention on the night it happened to him. Wished he had fucking papers so he could go to fucking college and study this shit.

Then he met Onigumo.

The sunken-eyed human still gave him the creeps, and he could never understand how he’d found Inuyasha. Onigumo sensed his yōki, recognized it for what it was. Even humans who still had reiki didn’t recognize his energy. But the strange man had.

“You’re looking for a way home, aren’t you?” The words had come as a whisper from an alley, too low for a human to hear them, meant for _him_.

“Who’s askin’?” Inuyasha had followed the shadow into the alleyway. He’d learned long ago that humans couldn’t touch him, and usually needed to be taught a lesson if they were stupid enough to bait someone.

“A _friend_ ,” the man whispered. “One who… wants to see the other world too.”

When Onigumo had finally emerged from the dark that shrouded him, Inuyasha instinctively bared his teeth. His demon did not like the man with the stringy hair and the sunken eyes, but if this man could get him _home_ , Inuyasha would accept the help.

“For you.” Onigumo had pulled something out of the bag he was holding and offered it to Inuyasha: a book. “It has some of the answers you’re seeking. I wrote my phone number on the inside cover. This will help. This will get you where you desperately want to go.” The man let out a yellow-toothed grin. “Seek me out if this book has your answers.”

Then Onigumo had disappeared back into the shadows, leaving nothing but a wisp of foreboding in his wake. Inuyasha looked down at the book and thought about the man that raised his hackles. He did not want to see Onigumo again, but if that book held the answers, held the path to Inuyasha getting home, he would follow its words, back to the sunken-eyed man.

That was what brought them here, into that secluded alleyway, with a device based on a theory in a book, Onigumo hovering over the half-demon and stifling his ability to think. Inuyasha wanted to growl and slash the man’s face and be done with him, but for some reason, there were things that Onigumo just _knew._ And they were things Inuyasha needed, so he put up with the rat-face and the suffocating aura. Because getting home was more important than anything else.

“Fuck!” A little spark snapped at Inuyasha’s finger, but it was quickly followed by a hum. “Yes! Fuck _yes_! It’s working!”

The device shuddered to life, humming and whirring as the circuits finally made contact with one another. It started to glow red and radiated a stifling heat, forcing Inuyasha backward.

Before his eyes, a small ring of bright blue light, as feeble as smoke rose up from the device, growing bright and more solid as the device hummed and shuddered ever more violently. Finally, it began to spin. The space inside the ring became darker and darker, until it was completely black.

[ ](https://i-dream-of-soup.tumblr.com/post/633231157842034688/guys-i-feel-like-it-has-been-forever-since-i?is_highlighted_post=1)

Artwork commission by [i-dream-of-soup](https://i-dream-of-soup.tumblr.com/)

* * *

Inuyasha’s eyes widened as he saw something on the other side, trying to break through the ring; an infant with shocking pink eyes and pale pink hair. Around it were filaments of black, pulsating-like veins from the energy of the other side. The infant kept scrambling forward, trying to push through some invisible barrier inside the ringed blackness.

Then with a pop, the infant, the blackness, and the ring were gone. Inuyasha’s device howled, then quaked, then with one final violent shudder, came entirely apart.

“ _Shit!_ ” Inuyasha bounded toward the device, trying in vain to hold it together, then howling and letting go as the pieces burned his flesh.

It was a fucking failure. Like all the other ones. The fucking piece of shit overheated before it could stabilize. And… what the _fuck_ was that creepy infant that he’d seen trying to crawl out?

“This is the best test we’ve had!” Onigumo slid next to him. “Yes, _yes_ . I think we’ve gotten closer. I can _feel it_.”

“It fucking failed,” Inuyasha snarled. “Maybe we should—”  
He didn’t want to admit that watching a creepy baby almost escape from the blackness had unsettled him.

“ _No_ . We keep going. You’re _almost there_.” Onigumo placed his hand on Inuyasha’s shoulder, causing him to shudder. “It’s been a long night. Maybe you should sleep on it. We can… start up again tomorrow.”

Inuyasha nodded at his partner, then began to gather the pieces of the broken device up to be brought back to his apartment and inspected. Maybe he needed to reinforce the motor better, maybe include some better heat insulation? But… his mind kept wandering back to that endless black and those violent pink eyes. Something about it felt _wrong_. Like he was walking down a path he should not be walking. Like… like… he should stop right now before things went any further.

Was getting home worth all of this?

_Yes_.

He would continue. He would work with Onigumo to open the portal. He would shake off the visual of the strange baby. He would improve the device, stabilize it against the vibrations, and insulate it against the heat.

Onigumo was right. They had opened the portal to the other world! The only thing they could do now was keep going forward. Whatever lurked on the other side was… besides the point. His _family_ was on the other side. And he was going to get there.

And the book in his hands provided the key.


	2. Demons Among Us!

One would assume that getting unexpected money would make anyone happy, but as Kikyo stared down at the check for $5.24, she was anything but.

$5.24 couldn’t even buy a goddamn latté in New York. But this  _ particular _ $5.24 was mocking her, reminding her that when she was young and stupid, she did young and stupid things. Like… a collaboration with a certain college roommate that was supposed to disappear into all those other mistakes that happen in college. But  _ noooooo _ , apparently not this one.

“I’m going to kill her,” Kikyo snarled under her breath.

Kikyo thought about the moment she opened the envelope from Amazon with that little check made out to  _ Kikyo Sekimuro _ , thanking her for contributing her book to their marketplace platform. The problem was, she’d… never uploaded a book to Amazon. She’d never written a book.

Except she had.   
In college.   
A book called  _ Demons Among Us! _   
A book she  _ co-authored _ with her college roommate, Kagome Higurashi.

And apparently, a book that had been published, and that she was now earning meager royalties on, to Amazon.

Kikyo Sekimuro and Kagome Higurashi became flatmates during their junior year of university. Despite being complete opposites, the two meshed extremely well. Kikyo was up studying and doing physics homework all hours of the night, while Kagome was up writing or sleuthing or completing articles for the school newspaper. Oftentimes they’d hang out on the couch in their little shared apartment, drinking wine and sake and talking about their theories of demons.

It was always a puzzle why reiki existed in the world, because demons certainly didn’t seem to, but it was a gift that Kagome and Kikyo shared. They often created little balls of reiki to pass between them, chatting and joking and theorizing about what happened to the demons. It… became a bit of an obsession, for them both. Kagome’s sleuthing skills found every instance of a human disappearing, or a strange light and ring appearing in the sky, or sprite lightning, or strange-looking characters showing up randomly in the world and then disappearing just as quickly. And Kikyo was obsessed with the technologies that might be able to tap into the “hidden dimension” that seemed to exist but not exist. And so the two wrote down their ideas, played around with whips of reiki, and thought about whether spiritual powers could be the key to opening the gateway to the dimension of demons.

Apparently… what Kikyo always assumed was a fun little excuse to procrastinate on physics homework, Kagome had decided to turn into a goddamned book. It meant… it meant Kikyo was going to have to do something she vowed never to do… she was going to have to find Kagome again, and talk to her.

“Dr. Sekimuro…” A dull voice came from the door, causing Kikyo to flinch.

“Dr. Ginkotsu,” Kikyo droned right back.

“ _ Demons Among Us _ .” Dr. Ginkotsu’s robotic face turned up into a grin.

_ Shit _ .

“Wha-what about it?” Kikyo tried to cover her dumbfoundedness with snark. How the hell had the chair of her department found out about the damn book the same day  _ she _ found out about the damn book?

“You wouldn’t happen to have been working on it during business hours, hmmmmm?” Dr. Ginkotsu stepped into her office and leaned over her desk, coming within a foot of Kikyo’s face. “You  _ know _ how CUNY feels about its faculty taking up…  _ side projects _ .”

Kikyo often wanted to murder the physics department chair, and she was pretty sure that the other pre-tenure professors did too. Dr. Ginkotsu had a petty side, and he was lazy. He would reassign their offices like musical chairs if they upset him. That didn’t stop them from calling him “the Robot King” though. He was endlessly dull, and seemed to assume that because Kikyo had a uterus she was a “diversity hire.” The book… was not going to help with that.

“It was a college project that my collaborator published without my consent,” Kikyo said; apparently the truth was actually the best answer.

“Well… well… well… I did not realize such  _ hobbies _ were ones you, a  _ young _ member of our faculty, would undertake.” Dr. Ginkotsu had terrible breath, and was currently aiming it at Kikyo’s sensitive nostrils.

“I have not undertaken any such  _ hobbies like this _ for many years  _ Dr. Ginkotsu, _ ” Kikyo answered back, trying her hardest to keep the barbs out of her voice.

“I should  _ hope not, _ ” Dr. Ginkotsu sneered.

Unfortunately for Kikyo, his distance from her also gave him a clear view of her desk. A clear view of $5.24 from Amazon for a book. From the way a nefarious wrinkle came to his eyes, Kikyo wanted to burn that stupid little check. A check that could not get her a goddamned latté and was looking like it was going to get her tenure package in trouble.

“Just… you may want to come to  _ my office _ so we can discuss how this impacts your research profile here,” Dr. Ginkotsu grinned.

Kikyo groaned. She knew what was coming next.

“For instance. I’m much more forgetful when I have more time for my research… when I’m not…  _ teaching Physics 101 to med students… _ ” There it was. Ginkotsu’s threat. Ginkotsu’s blackmail.

Kikyo was about to have to teach the class everyone hated to teach and everyone hated to take. It was over a hundred students who cared  _ nothing _ about physics and everything about their grades.

Because of $5.24.

“I’ll teach it.” Kikyo wished she had a laser that was capable of murder. “But… you are going to write me an  _ email _ telling me  _ why _ I am teaching that class. Otherwise… deal’s off and I’ll take my chances.”

“We’ll  _ work something out, _ ” Dr. Ginkotsu purred, and swept out of the room.

Kikyo didn’t have time to think through the threat that she’d just issued back to the chair of her department. She didn’t have time to think about the ramifications of opening herself up to blackmail by that petty, horrible man; she didn’t have time to consider whether it was  _ worth _ fighting to get tenure at a school that made her teach so many classes she could never actually do any of the research she so desperately wanted to do. She didn’t have goddamned time to do  _ anything _ . But she would have to make the time, because she needed to know what Kagome did. And she needed to know if she could undo it.

It was nice having a job. And she could think of at least 13 locations around the city she was certain she could dump a body, especially if her ex-friend’s decision to publish a book that shouldn’t exist was going to cost her said job.

Kikyo pulled up Amazon and scowled deeply at what she saw.  _ Demons Among Us _ ! Apparently it was available as a paperback, an e-book, and an audiobook. Kikyo bought all three.

She started scrolling through the e-book on her iPad. The introduction was well-written (Kagome was a journalism major after all), but made it seem like the two were in a collaboration together, rather than something more like Kagome kidnapped Kikyo’s image and used it to create a book. The pages were full of Kagome’s conspiracy theories tied into Kikyo’s physics (why the hell had she left Kagome those notes?!?!). It was all theoretical, and toward the end (Kikyo skimmed…) was written the theory that the two had believed to be the most feasible for the demon world — human world bridge. It was… well written but… Kagome had gone to great pains to make it seem like Kikyo had  _ endorsed and co-written _ the whole goddamned thing. Even using a photoshopped  _ image _ of the two of them looking like they walked out of a Carl Sagan documentary. And that was what did it: the “we”s of the book. Every page read like they’d done it together. And the more pages Kikyo perused, the more elaborate her fantasies about how she wanted to murder Kagome became. 

Run over by a car? Too gruesome, and would be obvious.   
Fed to a meat grinder? Where does someone find a meat grinder these days? It wasn’t Sweeney Todd.   
Fed to angry bears at the zoo? The bears were so fat that they wouldn’t want to eat Kagome…

No. Kikyo couldn’t murder Kagome. She needed to  _ talk _ to Kagome. Which was… well,  _ worse _ than murdering Kagome.

Because  _ Demons Among Us! _ couldn’t exist if Kikyo wanted to keep her job.


	3. An Unpleasant Reunion

“Thanks for getting back in touch. I’m really interested in that Youtube video you uploaded!” Kagome had finally found someone willing to talk… hopefully someone who could be paid a pittance. “Is there any chance I can offer you $50 for the unedited video? We’d also be happy to interview you!”

The frat boy on the other end of the line seemed to be excited enough about the “exposure” so “he could get his streaming career going” that he didn’t pay much attention to exactly _who_ Kagome worked for, which was all the better for her. She got his verbal agreement, and sent him the contract.

Sure, it was probably just sprite lightning, but… something pink and fluffy seemed to be peeking out of the little ring of light. And this dudebro, named “Nanushi,” was certain that he saw a baby coming out of the hole in the sky. Kagome scoffed. Nanushi seemed to think that this one video was going to make him a famous demon hunter… like all the rest of them.

Working for Musashi World News was a blessing and a curse. The pay was garbage, but she got to define her own hours. She got to choose her stories, but they had to fit the newspaper’s “image,” which meant it had to be tabloid fodder: the supernatural, “my mom was impregnated by an alien,” blah blah blah. But, in the endless sea of trashy stories about sex with aliens and werewolves and vampires, Kagome sometimes found gems. True, the chupacabra was just the carcass of a goat, but… there was always something about the sightings and rumors of demons that drew her.

After all, reiki was real (she knew, she was one of those gifted with it), so, why not yōki too? And there were just too many strange episodes that seemed to involve demons for Kagome to look away. Perhaps that was why she took her journalism degree to _this_ particular job—though that could also be explained by the shit job market. She was one of the lucky ones: her job came with health insurance and retirement, and a steady paycheck.

Not a _big_ paycheck, but a steady one.

Maybe that was why Kagome had finally done it. Maybe that was why she had taken all the notes that she and Kikyo made while they were drunk and high and transcribed them. Maybe that was why she looked up the physics behind Kikyo’s theories and pieced together what was missing (the free tutoring she snuck into NYU to receive helped a _lot_ ). And maybe, just maybe, that was why she uploaded the book. True, a 70/30 split was probably a bit on the cheap side, but Kagome had done all the work of turning the notes into a book after all, so it was more than fair!

And well… the sales had not been as substantial as she had hoped, but… at least some people had bought it? In fact, the only reason she knew about the weird sprite lightning event at 42nd St and 11th Ave was because someone had seen her book. It gave Kagome a tingle in the back of her neck, the same tingle that originally drew her to Kikyo. The  _ tingle _ that meant there was something there, something that needed her to look further. Meeting Kikyo meant meeting someone else with the gift of reiki. And… looking at the ring of lightning that people swore a pink-haired baby tried to crawl out of was something Kagome was also meant to look into.

Kagome looked at her notes. She’d found 6 videos and 19 photos of the event. For some strange reason, the moment the little pink tuft appeared in the videos, every photo saturated. People _said_ there was a baby, but no one caught it on _camera_.

It was so odd.

Kagome resolved to throw on her jacket and go investigate the site it supposedly happened at, after lunch. After she cashed her sweet sweet check for $12.23 from Amazon.

An angry knock at her apartment door abruptly halted those plans. Kagome bolted upright, trying to figure out if the guy who was convinced he was the reincarnation of Albert Einstein was back, or maybe the annoying neighbor who seemed to bring her weird homeopathic remedies as a way to get her to fall in love with him (...it wasn’t working…)

“Kagome! I know you’re in there!” The growl that came from the other side of the door was familiar… all too familiar. Because it was a growl that Kagome’d heard a _lot_ during college. _Kikyo._

Kagome groaned, then started walking toward the door. Slowly. She probably should’ve texted her old roommate a head’s up about the whole book thing, but, she hadn’t... She convinced herself that it would be a fun surprise for Kikyo! Kagome had visions of their book hitting the bestseller list because who _didn’t_ want to learn about the demon world?

Another growl was followed by a louder knock. “Goddammit Kagome, this isn’t funny!”

“Coming!” Kagome sang, even as her face held the type of scowl she usually saved for Albert Einstein man.

When she opened the door, she was not surprised at the narrowed icy eyes of her former roommate staring back at her. What she _was_ surprised about, though, was that Kikyo, who was usually put together and polished, looked disheveled. Her hair, usually pin-straight and up in a perfectly coiffed style, was messy, thrown into a disheveled braid. Her usually immaculate outfit was sitting out of place, as if Kikyo had left wherever she was and stormed halfway across Manhattan in her anger. It was… _hilarious._

Seven years after the last time Kagome saw her roommate, and for the first time ever, Kikyo looked a mess.

“It’s been a long time,” Kagome deadpanned. She was _not_ going to laugh. She was _not going to laugh._ That would be rude.

“Um. Yes. Well. Perhaps we should have met up earlier…” Kikyo plastered a false smile on her face, but Kagome knew what was coming. “You know, a chance to catch up. Have coffee. _Talk about a stupid book that you were considering publishing with my name on it so I could talk you out of it…_ ”

“You haven’t changed,” Kagome grinned. Goddamn, it felt good to see her again. It had been way too long.

“Um, _yes I have!_ ” Kikyo huffed. “I have a Ph.D. now! A respectable job! I _do not have time to chase demons_.”

“My mistake,” Kagome drawled, moving aside as Kikyo stormed into her apartment.

She knew Kikyo had changed. They’d lost touch the moment Kikyo went off to graduate school. To study theoretical physics. She became a “doctor” and got all the pretension and snootiness that came with being a doctor.

Did Kagome miss her? Hell no! That wasn’t why she published the book. She published _Demons Among Us!_ because it was an excellent revenue stream for her. She published it because it meant she got more tips… like the ones about the baby sprite. The ones that made her job easier.

It was definitely not because she missed her former best friend and roommate and shooting the shit until god-knows-o’clock about demons and reiki and yōki. About Kagome’s strange experience walking along and feeling a spike in… something. Something that brought that tingle to her spine. She missed playing reiki games with Kikyo.

But no. She wrote that book because of the revenue stream. And she included Kikyo as a co-author not to get Kikyo to finally reach out, but totally because… it was only fair for Kikyo to get credit.

“Why did you publish our weird book Kagome?” Kikyo finally asked, looking frustrated, but finally getting to the point they both knew she was going to make.

“It was an excellent revenue stream for me…” Kagome said, then sighed and added, “And some other things.”

“What. other. things.” Kikyo enunciated each word like she was punching Kagome in the face.

“ _Nothing_.” Kagome dodged the question.

“Kagome… my department chair came to my office and showed me _this book that I didn’t know existed_ ,” Kikyo pleaded.

“I thought that they sent you a check…” Kagome retorted. There wasn’t time to feel guilty. She’d done what she had to do.

“For _$5.24_ !!!” Kikyo shrieked, finally her composure completely breaking. “I might _lose my job_ because you decide to publish a book from when we were young, drunk and stupid… for 5-fucking-24!!!”

Kagome gaped. Kikyo almost never used language that harsh. Apparently Kikyo really _was_ upset about everything. And well… Kagome… probably should have mentioned the whole writing a book thing…

“Back then… you didn’t think it was stupid,” Kagome mumbled into her hands.

“Back then, I didn’t have a Ph.D. in physics,” Kikyo huffed. “And… sorry for… swearing.”

“And how exactly did your Ph.D. change your view of the theories we came up with?” Kagome narrowed her eyes, partly hurt, but partly acting on a hunch.

“They… it… well… I mean… modern physics is the study of things that are _real_ Kagome, _tangible_ ,” Kikyo lectured. “Not some supernatural daydreams of two very bored college students.”

“And what does modern physics say about _this_?” Kagome raised her hand, focused her reiki into it and let it leak out as she twirled her fingers drawing a light pink neon flower in front of her.

“It… it…” Kikyo stuttered, then sighed. “It _doesn’t_.”

“Exactly!” Kagome crossed her arms, drawing her power back into her core. “So we do a thing that physics can’t exactly explain. It is impossible to use physics to prove the existence of reiki. So… why is the demon dimension any different?”

“ _Because it makes me look like a crazy person!_ ” Kikyo cried, her eyes wide and vulnerable. The facade had cracked.

“Oh! So I’m crazy? Is that what you’re saying?” Kagome tried to keep her voice from getting shrill, but she failed.

“No!” Kikyo shouted back, then her shoulders slumped. “No. You’re not crazy. And… we _do_ do something that shouldn’t exist according to what we know about physics. But… well…” Kikyo dropped her head. “I hate the way people looked at me. Back then. When I talked to them about this stuff.”

“You’ve never gotten over it,” Kagome realized. “You hid it— _us—_ away so that people would accept you?”

“Well, look at _you_ ! You’ve tripled down on it all! You published my ideas and co-authored the book! You used _my name_ to lend it credibility because you work for a supernatural tabloid!” Kikyo hissed.

What Kikyo had said was utterly cruel, but unfortunately, also utterly true.

That was the thing Kagome had been trying to hide from herself. She _wanted_ to publish that book, but… she also wanted that book to be taken seriously. And, well, working where she worked, it wouldn’t have been.

That realization was probably what prompted the tears to start pooling in her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Kagome murmured. “I’m so sorry Kikyo. I… I _did exactly what you said._ ”

Kagome felt a pat on her shoulder, so she looked up at her old roommate, her friend, the friend who she wrote a book and borrowed the reputation of.

“How about this. Let’s publish it under _pen names_ instead of real ones.” Kikyo gifted Kagome with a gentle smile. “Let the ideas in there stand on their own. Not worry about reputations.”

“Will… will you get to keep your job?” Kagome sniffled.

“Oh, for that _you owe me_. I hope you like grading physics Kagome,” Kikyo answered sharply. “Given that the chair is about to make me teach the worst class in the physics department for his silence…”

Kagome recognized the olive branch. And she recognized something else too. Kikyo was offering reconciliation.

“Deal!” Kagome reached out her hand, and Kikyo took it.

Had it really been seven years? It really had been.

And… well… Kagome missed her. Missed their talks. Missed discussing whether, if when they stared into the abyss, something stared back. Kagome remembered a night, coming home after a late shift at work, seeing and _feeling_ a flicker of energy. The swore she saw a flash of silver hair and a man running away. Something about it _felt_ otherworldly, as if her reiki was screaming at her to both go investigate and stay away. No one believed her. Except Kikyo. No one let her believe it was a portal to another world instead of a hooligan throwing a pipe bomb. Except Kikyo. But, she was never able to prove anything was real, and then Kikyo left her too.

For all those years Kagome wandered, trying to find the space where she could keep having those conversations. But most people weren’t interested. It took her finding the job at Musashi for her to finally find people who didn’t immediately dismiss her belief that demons existed as folly, or fetishistic, or childish. And to some degree, it was only because Mr. Mushin was so eccentric _himself_ that Musashi let her explore her demon obsession. But today, the video in her hand was the _first time_ she’d seen anything that made her think, made her hope, made her believe.

She… she wanted to see if maybe… just maybe Kikyo would believe too, like she had all those years ago.

“Hey. Can… can I show you something?” Kagome tried not to sound desperate, but… she really wanted to know.

Kikyo narrowed her eyes, but stepped closer. It was enough of a signal for Kagome to continue.

“Someone sent this to me. It’s… it’s not like anything I’ve ever seen except…” Kagome sidled a little bit closer to Kikyo, her phone in her hand, the video from Nanushi fresh in her inbox. “What do you think?”

Kagome pressed play. The video was a bit better than the one on Youtube, but still definitely not IMAX. The sprite lightning was clear, but it lingered (something that certainly did not happen in electrical storms), and then there it was, the ring of light surrounding endless blackness, then a puff of pink, then nothing.

Kikyo had leaned in extremely close to the video, her eyes impossibly narrow. Kagome knew that look. It meant that Kikyo was intrigued, and baffled.

“You sure this isn’t doctored?” Kikyo turned her gaze onto Kagome, a spark of interest arcing across them.

“Not completely, but… this is one of about a dozen I’ve found. It’s the best. And the guy swears he saw a _baby_ crawling out of it before it imploded,” Kagome answered.

“A _baby_?” Kikyo’s interest had turned to skepticism.

“I’m running the witnesses all down right now. But they don’t know each other, and they all report nearly the same thing. Pillar of red light, white ring surrounding blackness, pink hair, creepy baby, then poof. Gone.” Kagome said it in the most matter-of-fact way she could, but… she was excited. Because _she_ thought it was something real.

“Could be a really elaborate prank.” Kikyo crossed her arms.

“I’ve been scouring 4chan, reddit, Youtube, _everywhere_ and… nothing,” Kagome countered. Surely Kikyo had more faith in her journalistic skills than that!

“So… then what do _you_ think?” Kikyo shot back.

Kagome had her. She was interested.

“I think that was a portal. And I think that thing tried to crawl out to _our_ side,” Kagome squealed, elated she had someone to _talk to_ about it.

“That’s _a lot_ Kagome,” Kikyo sighed, but it was clear that her brain was thinking things through. “It is much more feasible that this was a Banksy prank.”

“Sprite lightning? Strange wormhole? _Creepy baby_ ?” Kagome retorted. “I see it in your eyes, Kikyo: you suspect something weird is going on with this too. You can _feel_ it.”

Before Kikyo could say another word, there was a loud rapping on Kagome’s door. It startled both women, who stared. But Kagome was always the one in the horror movies who would open the door or go in the basement, so she headed to her door.

When she opened it, a young woman with red-brown eyes, jet black hair which was tied up in an elaborate and messy bun, and she had jade earrings dangling from her delicate ears.

“You should be harder to find.” The mystery woman stormed into the apartment. “Are you Kagome Higurashi?”

“Who’s asking?” Kikyo blurted, throwing a suspicious look at Kagome.

Kagome gave Kikyo the slightest of shrugs. It was not _every day_ someone strange barged into her apartment, but… it wasn’t exactly _never_ either. Working for Musashi World News sometimes brought strange characters to Kagome’s door.

“Oh, hi. Kagura. Kagura Arashi.” Kagura held out her hand confidently to Kikyo, obviously thinking that _she_ was Kagome.

“Kagome.” Kagome stepped forward, taking Kagura’s hand. “Pleased to meet you. So… is there a reason you’re here?”

Kagura fumbled through her bag and pulled out a copy of _Demons Among Us!_ and threw it to Kagome, “I saw something really weird. Something that has to do with this book.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness gracious, the wonderful [kirrtash](https://kirrtash.tumblr.com) did this amazing Kikyo and Kagome as college roommates piece for my birthday! It is so beautiful and colorful and shows them so so well! THANK YOU SO MUCH! And seriously, if you have not checked out kirrtash's work, do yourself a favor and go check it out!  
>    
> 
> 
> [ ](https://kirrtash.tumblr.com/post/643745487520940032/hi-here-is-a-super-late-gift)
> 
> Birthday artwork by [kirrtash](https://kirrtash.tumblr.com)


	4. More Than Just a Book

Inuyasha looked down at his charred hands, frowning at the rivulets of blood that intermingled the cracked and peeling skin. They hurt like a bitch, but he didn’t care. He was too elated to pay attention to the sting of his demon blood knitting them back together. It had taken an electrical current nearly arcing through his heart to get him there, but… it  _ fucking worked _ ! The reverse cyclotron was finally emitting enough power that it could  _ sustain _ the portal!

Unfortunately the goddamned thing was still overheating, but that was just an engineering question, rather than a supernatural question. Inuyasha hissed as his hands became usable once again, and set to work. He needed to add a cooling system and get a few more silicon insulators and that would be that, or so he hoped.

All because of that goddamned book.

He could fucking  _ taste it _ . It was within his grasp. He knew it: this time it  _ would work _ . This time, it would open long enough he could crawl back through it and back to his family. His family would mean no more of that fucking world; it would mean no more  _ Onigumo _ .

No one had ever raised his hackles the way Onigumo did, but looks could be deceiving. After all, he would never have assumed that a book called  _ Demons Among Us! _ would hold all the answers for him, yet it did. It was thorough, written by someone who had figured out how the parallel universes manifested, and who’d worked out the physics to open the portals between the two.

The book explained how his mother had ended up in the demon world, and it explained how he ended up in the human world. It required a highly magnetic event happening in  _ exactly _ the right place, combined with an injection of either yōki or reiki. The power of the magnetic fields was able to create the tunnel, and the spiritual energy acted like a homing beacon, finding its way to one or the other world.

So… that was what he was doing. The device he’d made was creating a large magnetic event, which he hoped, if he placed it  _ just so _ , then added a spark of his yōki, it would bore a tunnel through whatever-the-fuck separated the worlds and let him get home.

The pieces were falling together. And, sure… the device was still unstable as  _ fuck _ , but it was almost complete. It was to the point where the path needed  _ tweaking _ , rather than thrashing about in the wilderness and hoping to the path would appear. And he could do that, because he knew at the end of this ordeal, his family was waiting for him.

_ Got it working. It will be ready by tomorrow. Let me know the next address. _   
Inuyasha texted Onigumo.

Onigumo was  _ insistent _ that he knew where to fully activate the devices to open the portals, even though Inuyasha begged to let him test them out in places that were not near people. When he suggested running the tests at a junkyard on Staten Island, Onigumo had nearly erupted in his refusal, stating that it  _ must _ happen where he directed. It was the first time Inuyasha had actively been  _ afraid _ of the sunken-eyed man who was his partner, and unfortunately, it had not been the last.

_ Excellent. 2pm. Bring bolt cutters.  
_ Inuyasha scowled at Onigumo’s reply. He  _ hated _ breaking into buildings. Especially as an ‘undocumented’ and especially as a half-demon. But… when Onigumo insisted, he didn’t argue.

It would get him home.   
_ It would get him home. _

There was something ominous about Onigumo; there always had been. And it had only gotten more pronounced after their first success. Inuyasha remembered seeing the pink hair and magenta eyes of that  _ thing _ that was trying to crawl through the portal, and the instinctual need to run away as far as he could from it, but Onigumo’s eyes only reflected jubilance. As if he was seeing something familiar— something he wanted to celebrate.

And he’d redoubled his harassment to get Inuyasha to work harder, read deeper, study farther beyond where he had already gone. Inuyasha wanted to bark that he already knew enough about physics to be a fucking major if any goddamned college would accept him, but… he didn’t. Because for some reason, challenging Onigumo felt like throwing sparks at a powderkeg, and never knowing which spark would ultimately set it off.

So Inuyasha did what he was told. He also… looked at that photo of the two women on the back cover of  _ Demons Among Us! _ , picturing them cheering him on to get home. Picturing the shorter one, the one with the wavy hair and the wide, sparkling brown eyes telling him that he was doing a great job. He felt her gentle hand on his shoulder, rubbing it reassuringly as he worked, reminding him that he deserved to get back to his family, and that she believed in him.

[ ](https://i-dream-of-soup.tumblr.com/post/635956909705494528/anyone-interested-in-some-more-beanie-inu-here)

Artwork commission by [i-dream-of-soup](https://i-dream-of-soup.tumblr.com)

* * *

It was fucking stupid, creating a fake relationship with the woman on the book cover, but it helped. It helped the hollow loneliness that came with his quest. It helped him keep his guard up every time he had to see Onigumo (which was a  _ lot _ ). He sometimes even thought about tracking her down, just so he could  _ see her _ . But he was a fucking  _ half-demon _ in a world full of humans. Even someone like that woman, who wrote a book about the existence of demons and how to get to them, would never fucking accept a wretched half-demon like him.

He didn’t belong in this world.   
This was a world that would  _ never _ accept what he was.   
Because he wasn’t supposed to exist.

Why did something inside his soul desperately  _ want _ that woman to accept who he was? As if… he was meant to meet her. Meant to read her book. And now, as he used the theories in that book to build and realize its words, he wondered if she would be proud of him, a wretch from a different world who interpreted their theories and turned them into a working machine.

Well, an  _ almost _ working machine.   
If it was going to be an  _ actual _ working machine. Inuyasha had a lot more work to do.

Thankfully the burn had receded to a sting and was now only a tingle. His hands were intact now, because of the demon half of him. If he worked through the night, he would be able to have the prototype ready.

Hopefully he’d been able to dampen the oscillations, and insulate the wires sufficiently to avoid the power overload that happened last time, and  _ hopefully _ , when he added that little spark of his yōki into the system, it wouldn’t back react through him and fry him (like it had today). If he could just isolate the yōki reservoir a little better, he would not get zapped again. 

Inuyasha threw the welder’s mask back over his face and got back to work. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

The next day, Inuyasha stood in front of the nondescript building in East Harlem. He swallowed down the growl that always tried to escape him when he saw the slumped figure of Onigumo, waiting for him.

“No alarms. Will be simple to get in,” Onigumo rasped.   
Why did Inuyasha nearly always have to stifle down a shudder when Onigumo spoke?

“Keh. Just show me where,” Inuyasha replied, following Onigumo’s fingers to a barred double-door in the alleyway next to the building. “Let’s get this over with.”

Onigumo bared his yellowed teeth as he followed Inuyasha to the door. Inuyasha pulled out the bolt cutters, and with a loud snap, the chain fell loose. A couple quick knocks of his hand later, and the lock clicked. They were in.

“Why here?” Inuyasha couldn’t hold the question in. He needed to know.

“Because,” Onigumo answered, a slight edge to his voice.

“I’ve been busting my balls making this  _ fucking reverse cyclotron _ device,” Inuyasha growled. “Least you can do is tell me why the  _ fuck _ we keep havin’ to go do it all over the goddamned city.”

“You  _ want  _ to get home,  _ right, Inuyasha _ ?” Onigumo’s voice had become quiet and laced with menace.

“You fucking know I do.” Inuyasha lowered his own growl to meet the challenge, but after meeting Onigumo’s eyes, he softened his tone. “I just want to fucking know  _ why here. _ Is all.”

“Do you not  _ trust me _ ?” Onigumo snarled.

“I… I do,” Inuyasha wavered.   
He knew that he was lying to Onigumo, but what the fuck else could he do?

“Then trust me,” Onigumo answered. “Make the device. And trust me to tell you where to activate it.”

Inuyasha nodded. He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to be around Onigumo anymore. He… he was starting to think that he never should’ve talked to the man.

But… he  _ needed  _ to return to his home. More than he’d ever needed anything.

So… he would continue. He would activate the device. He would burn his hands again if he needed to. He would  _ make it fucking work _ . And while he set it up, with the rancid breath of Onigumo assaulting his nose, he would imagine the woman on the cover of  _ Demons Among Us! _ telling him to keep going, confident that he could do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [kalcia](https://kalcia.tumblr.com/) my friend, you are truly a gift. **Thank you so so so much** for this, because you knew how down I was feeling. I love you so much and value our friendship SO MUCH. 
> 
> [ ](https://kalcia.tumblr.com/post/639933922113978368/inuyasha-from-the-portal-between-worlds-by)
> 
> Artwork by [the beautiful kalcia](https://kalcia.tumblr.com/)


	5. Not a Coincidence.

Kagura stared at the dumb look that the two women, Kagome and Kikyo, were sharing with one another. She wasn’t exactly sure what she’d been expecting… from two women who were featured on a book cover like  _ Demons Among Us! _ —but it was apparently something more intelligent than what she was seeing.

“Uh. I’m sorry, but that book is nonsense.” The taller one—Kikyo?—stepped forward.

“Isn’t your face  _ on _ the book?” Kagura checked. Sure, the face on the book was more smiley than the resting bitch face in front of her, but… the similarities were obvious. “And I’ve read a lot of nonsense. Nonsense does not make a weird loopy black void in space. And nonsense  _ definitely _ does not make some strange white-haired child come floating out of it.”

“You mean pink-haired, right?” The shorter one— _ Kagome’s _ —eyes widened, which made her look a little bit like a bug.

“No. I mean  _ white-haired _ . Girl looked like she was the main villain in some creepy doll horror movie. Long, perfectly straight,  _ white _ hair, with little black flowers in it. The same color as her dead-ass  _ eyes _ .” Kagura couldn’t keep the shudder from escaping her.

No one wanted to see the girl from  _ The Ring _ come floating out of a weird black hole in the sky. She sure as fuck didn’t need to see it.

...But that didn’t mean she’d deleted the video…

“Wait. Where exactly were you when you saw this phenomenon?” Kagome’s voice had become high pitched in a way that made it sound like a squeak.

“Uhhh, Lexington and 130th?” Kagura answered.

“That is  _ nowhere near the first phenomenon! _ ” Kagome’s answer really  _ was _ a squeak now.

“Wait, there have been more of these things?” Kagura had been interested before, but  _ two _ holes with creepy horror children? Interested had evolved into...fascinated.

“Only one other that we’ve heard of,” Kagome explained. “C-can you tell me everything that you saw?”

“Depends…” Kagura smirked, grabbing her phone. “Tell  _ me _ everything about this book and why you’re talking about multiple phenomena.”

“We don’t even know you!” Kikyo sputtered, causing Kagome to shoot her a look.

There was a strange tension in the room. As if Kagura had walked in on the middle of some intimate quarrel between the two women. It was getting annoying. She needed answers, not this.

“Wait, did I walk in on something?” Kagura asked. “Lover’s quarrel?”

“What?!  _ No! _ ” came both women’s responses.

“She—we were… discussing the book.” Kikyo regained her composure, though her almond eyes were still wide.

“Oh, good. Then just consider me part of that conversation.” Kagura walked over to the couch and settled herself onto it, crossing her legs.

“That’s not how  _ it works _ !” Kikyo’s composure broke again.

Kagura watched the way Kikyo’s nose crinkled and her full lips gaped a bit as she was trying to calm herself down. She was sort of cute when she got angry.

“I have a proposition,” Kagome stepped in, staring Kagura down with interest. “Tit for tat. You tell us what you saw, we’ll tell you if it has something to do with our book or the  _ other _ incident. It answers  _ your _ questions and might answer ours too.”

“This is ridiculous. This woman is… she’s here under  _ false pretenses _ . Kagome— _ please _ , just take down the book! Or take me off as co-author so I can get  _ on with my life... _ ” Kikyo enunciated. “I… I don’t want any part of whatever is going on.”

Kikyo’s eyes darted and she wrung her hands—but even the least observant person in the room would conjecture that she was lying.

“Ohhhh. Wait. You’re the physicist right?” Kagura was… well shit, she still wanted answers, but… Kikyo was tall and cute, and had an easily breakable facade of collectedness that was making Kagura want to push a little further, to see what reactions she could invoke.

“Yes, why?” Kikyo crossed her arms, her lips impossibly thin.

“Very cool. Were I to guess, someone was futzing with your theories to try to make an actual  _ device _ that gets to the other world,” Kagura said simply, trying to suppress a grin as the two women finally paid attention to her.

She’d only scanned the book after picking it up (okay  _ fine _ , she’d spent the previous night reading it cover to cover), and well… she  _ really really  _ needed to talk to Kagome Higurashi… Thankfully the internet had provided the answers she needed, like Kagome’s home address.

“M-making a device?” Kikyo gasped. “Out of… stupid debunked theories?” 

“So...let me get this straight. What you’re saying is that you  _ published a book _ full of evidence of a parallel universe that happened to house demons… and then you expounded on the theories that could explain how to  _ access _ said parallel universe.” Kagura rolled her eyes. “Then I get here saying wacky shit is going down that looks _ exactly like the damn theories you were talking about _ , and you… what… are telling me it’s bullshit?” Kagura huffed. “I know bullshit, girls. That wasn’t bullshit. That was—”

“What exactly did you see…?” Kagome’s voice grew soft and soothing, a journalist’s voice, designed to coax out Kagura’s information.

“Oh, I will get to that…” Kagura teased. “But first… why do you keep saying the book is debunked?”

“Well,” Kagome sighed, “ _ she _ thinks the book is debunked. But I sure don’t.”

Kikyo scoffed, then pointed her finger at Kagome. “ _ She _ published it without my permission! She is  _ using my name _ and  _ my theories _ to make a quick buck. To  _ further her own fucking reputation! _ ”

Their fight was maybe even more interesting than the other stuff…

“Wait, didn’t you two write this book  _ together? _ ” Kagura asked.

“We  _ did _ write it together…  _ she _ just was not interested in my publishing it!” Kagome squawked, her eyes wide and angry.

“Ohhhh, I get it. Break up revenge?” Kagura was never one who could keep her mouth shut when things were interesting.

Kikyo’s blush and Kagome’s gape gave away a whole lot more than they both imagined. Kagura smirked.

“Okay, enough shooting the shit. Kikyo, I am pretty sure that your book is  _ not _ full of bullshit theories. First? Because they check out. Second? Because the very weird things I saw are  _ predicted _ by your damn book. And third? Because the silver-haired dude and the one that looked like Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings were  _ discussing it, _ ” Kagura said. “So… let’s keep talking.”

“How do you know so much about the theories working?” Kikyo asked, interest sparking in her jeweled umber eyes.

“Oh. The physics?” Kagura grinned. She knew she liked to wear torn jeans and old band t-shirts that looked like they were from Hot Topic; it was a really good way to confuse people. “I dabble.”

If Engineering Physics at Columbia University was dabbling, then sure, Kagura “dabbled.”

“So… there were two men. A silver-haired man and one… with dark hair?” Kagome’s eyes were now narrow too. Kagura had successfully reeled them both in.

“And don’t forget about the child of the corn…” Kagura continued. “That was the worst part.”

“By any chance can you describe, in detail, what the event looked like?” Kagome pressed.

“Better,” Kagura winked. “But first. I wanna see the first event.”

“Wait. How do we know this isn’t some giant hoax from a crazy person?” Kikyo broke in.

“Because I have video,” Kagura shrugged. “So… show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”   
She didn’t miss Kikyo’s little quirk at her double entendre.

“Here.” Kagome passed Kagura her phone. “We were looking at this literally just before you knocked.”

Kagura pressed the button on the video to play. Some dude was screaming in the background, but Kagura saw the familiar red flash of the sprite lightning, then the ring of bright blue light, and finally the slow and steady blackening of the space inside the ring, then… a tuft of pink? Then the video cut out.

“So… what was the thing that was coming out of the hole?” Kagura turned her attention back to Kagome.

“Guy claims that he saw a pink-haired baby crawl out of it,” Kagome answered, taking her phone back from Kagura.

Kagura tried to keep the excitement out of her face. If that was the best video they had, she was about to change everything.

“I’d bet a thousand dollars if you asked this dudebro if his ears popped at the moment his phone cut out, he’d say yes.” Kagura raised her eyebrow for that extra deductive effect.

“Why do you say that?” Kagome asked.

“Because…” Kagura paused, knowing she was about to blow their minds, “Whatever the hell that thing is, it emits a giant electromagnetic pulse. Wacks out electronics. That is…” Kagura grabbed her own phone. “ _ Unless  _ you happen to have a  _ van _ that has a Faraday cage surrounding it…” She handed her phone to Kagome, but kept her gaze on Kikyo, whose eyes had lit with recognition.

“The Faraday cage dampens the radio waves and… that means,” Kikyo rushed to join Kagome in watching the video on Kagura’s phone.

“That’s right. The blast did  _ not _ make my phone stop recording. Just a little static. So… there it is. Red sprite lightning. Blue ring of light. Black hole in the middle. And…  _ creepy little girl floating out of it _ .” Kagura could hear her own voice take on that excited timbre that couldn’t be contained when she got excited, usually about something dangerous, and  _ definitely _ about something she was going to be chasing after more.

As they watched, Kagura listened along, remembering the girl, a white spectre, as she climbed out of the portal like the little girl from  _ The Ring _ , then floated down toward the ground. As she heard the two loud voices and some clanking and thumping emanate from her phone, she remembered seeing bright white lightning lace through the black space as the black-eyed, white-haired girl got sucked in. She remembered watching the girl claw violently as the thing pulled her back in, but that her face stayed passive, as if her body was disconnected from her mind.

Kagura had seen some creepy things, but  _ never _ like that. She’d hidden in her van as the two men raced by, having dropped her phone as she ducked out of sight.

“I was too busy hiding from the creep to record it but… Wormtongue was holding some sort of device. Maybe a… toroid?” Kagura offered.

“Hmmm… would make sense. It could make a substantial magnetic field they’d need…” Kikyo scratched her chin. “But—”

“But the  _ spark _ .” Kagome continued Kikyo’s thought. “What do you think they could use?”

“I dunno… I mean, we can’t be the  _ only _ two who have reiki…” Kikyo and Kagome appeared to have forgotten Kagura was in the room. She didn’t mind, because this was all really interesting.

“So. A reiki user is making machines to try to…” Kagome’s voice was becoming more high-pitched by the second.

“ _ Open a portal _ !” Kagome and Kikyo squealed the last sentence together, as if they’d just discovered that they had been accepted into the same sorority. (Kagura still wasn’t completely convinced that they hadn’t been an item.)

“Okay… can I stop this train right now?” Kagura got up and grabbed her phone from Kagome’s hands. “Reiki. Honestly? Is that a real thing?” She then looked at the two women. “ _ And  _ that thing I saw crawling out of the black hole of doom is  _ not _ something I really want hanging out over in this dimension. So… maybe it is a  _ cool theory _ , but creepy babies and hell children just flitting about Manhattan is not my idea of something to squee over.”

“It confirms our theory Kikyo… it means—” Kagome wasn’t listening to Kagura’s protests, even after she’d taken away the phone.

“It means that you two figured out how to tunnel between two dimensions and some bonehead criminal dudes are using your book to do it, yes!” Kagura stepped directly in between the two women; she was going to get her point across. “So… when do we get started?”

“Started  _ what _ ?” Kikyo huffed, finally paying attention once more to Kagura.

“Start figuring out what the shit they are doing, and stop creepy babies from coming through whatever the hell it is they’re making?” Kagura spat out.

“Reverse cyclotron, I imagine…” Kikyo breathed.

“Right. That’s the part you get excited about,” Kagura drawled. “The  _ technology. _ Not the creepy baby.”

“How do we know that these things from the other side—these...  _ demons _ —are malevolent?” Kagome interjected.

“You’re currently arguing that a  _ creepy baby that looked like Samara from the Ring was coming to our world to sprinkle happiness and fairy dust on us… _ Not buying the ‘they want to be friends!’ bit.” Kagura still drawled, but at a louder volume. “Welp. When do we get  _ started _ ?”

“We..?” Kikyo looked incredulously at Kagura.

“Wait a  _ minute _ .” Kagome took her finger and pressed it into Kikyo’s chest. “Wasn’t it like  _ a half hour ago _ you stormed into my apartment to demand I take down the book?”

“It’s been a weird half-hour…” Kikyo looked at her feet.

“Sounds like you’re in.” Kagura nudged Kikyo, who brought her gaze back to Kagura (her… very pretty gaze— _ crap _ ).

“Where do you think they’ll strike next?” Kagome turned to Kagura with a wide-eyed grin. Kagome was  _ in. _

“Why do you think  _ we _ are going to do…  _ anything _ ?” Kikyo asked, gesticulating rapidly at both Kagome and Kagura.

“Because. I saw the old Kikyo,” Kagome answered. “Today. I saw the old Kikyo. The one who sees these images and just  _ knows _ something is going on. And… just like back then, you want to  _ explore it _ .”

“Plus. I have a van with a Faraday cage,” Kagura added. “A van that I might add I modded myself.” When both women’s gazes took on an interrogative edge. “And— _ and _ I work the Geek Squad counter at Best Buy and my boss lets me take home all the defective electronics.”

“So… you’re saying… you work at a Best Buy.” Kikyo’s eyes had narrowed again.

“Columbia’s expensive as  _ shit _ and I am saving up for my final semester. Sue me,” Kagura scowled. “Neither of you look like you could make so much as a simple circuit.” Okay, fine, she was getting defensive and judgy, but they’d criticized her employment. “So. Are we doing this? Defending the world from creepy babies coming out of black holes?”

“Hell yes we are!” Kagome exclaimed, then turned toward Kikyo, her voice softening. “I know you, Kikyo. I  _ know _ you’re as interested in this right now as I am...”

“You-you  _ sure _ you can look at our theories and make…  _ machines _ to make it all work?” Kikyo looked only at Kagura.

“You bet I can.” Kagura reached out and took Kikyo’s hands, unsurprised at their silken texture; bringing about Kikyo’s puzzled look. “ _ Especially _ if I have help from the person who created the theory.”

“I… I guess,” Kikyo sighed, her frown giving way to the subtlest of smiles. “But… I have to teach. And that comes first.  _ And _ … Kagome, you change my name on that book to a pseudonym.”

“Deal,” Kagome squealed, then threw her hands on top of Kagura and Kikyo’s. “This is going to be  _ fun! _ ”

“It sure will be something…” Kikyo countered, her brows furrowed but her eyes alight.

“An adventure,” Kagura said. “By the way, it’s really nice to meet you both.”


	6. The Third Portal

[ ](https://i-dream-of-soup.tumblr.com/post/638494492458205184/hi-everyone-i-give-you-police-officer-sango-more)

Artwork commission by [i-dream-of-soup](https://i-dream-of-soup.tumblr.com)

* * *

Sango stared at the piece of paper in her hands: a letter recommending she take a leave of absence.

She knew what she fucking saw. She was a cop. She’d been trained to use her eyes, to pay attention to  _ everything _ , especially when things didn’t make sense.

Naked faceless men climbing out of holes in the sky was  _ not _ normal, and was also not some figment of her imagination.

“Hey Madonna…” Sango knew that voice. Sango  _ hated _ that voice.  _ Mukotsu _ . “I heard you finally went off the deep end.”

Fun fact. Mukotsu was the one who gave Sango that wonderful nickname. Back when she saw traffic duty more than a beat. Because Madonna wore traffic cones over her tits back in the 80s. It was only creative in that Muk could keep the higher-ups safe from a discrimination lawsuit.

“Fuck off Muk,” Sango scowled. She really didn’t need this bullshit right now. Not that she ever needed his bullshit. “Don’t you have jaywalkers to ticket?”

“Word on the street is you saw ‘a ghost,’” Muk mocked, leaning so close to Sango she could smell his rancid breath.

Cops were worse gossips than middle schoolers.

“None of your business.” Sango stood up, and turned to leave the precinct. “Just… taking some vacation time.”

“With all your extra free time, you could  _ entertain me _ .” Muk never gave up.

She’d said no. She’d said  _ fuck no _ . She’d told him to leave her alone. And yet, he still persisted.   
She’d even reported him for harassment, and  _ she’d _ been the one labeled a troublemaker.

“The neutering clinic was busy,” Sango shot back, but she didn’t stop walking. She needed to get the fuck out of there before she attempted to use her foot to castrate him herself.

Sango slammed the door to the stairwell with enough force that it echoed through the column of industrial stairs. She’d had  _ enough _ with the politics.  _ Enough _ with the claims she was a goddamned diversity hire.  _ Enough _ with being called Madonna and having everything she did questioned and challenged. Sango knew what she saw. She remembered what she saw. And she’d written it down in the excruciating detail that she’d learned to do from the academy.

And it wasn’t just the unbelievable she’d taken note of.

Yes, when she’d marched into her captain’s office and told him she watched a faceless man crawl out of the black hole, he’d asked her if it was “that time of the month.” And when she explained that she heard voices and thought there were people who’d  _ incited _ the event, he’d suggested she take a leave of absence. Because her rumor-mongering was having “an impact on morale.”

(There was a reason she’d been trying to transfer precincts for so long. Because Capt. Kaijinbo was both useless and sexist.)

As Sango left the precinct, she sighed. It was too early in the morning to put up with bullshit.

“I know what I saw,” she whispered as she descended into the subway station.

Just because her office was not taking Sango’s investigation seriously didn’t mean  _ she couldn’t _ . They were practically  _ encouraging _ her to go rogue.

She would go back to the site of the strange occurrence, and she would do her fucking job. She would comb the building and see if there was anything that pointed to the culprits. Because Sango  _ knew _ that there was always  _ someone _ behind things, even if those things seemed supernatural and unbelievable. And she would get to the bottom of this thing, too.

Sango hopped on the train, exiting at the 96th Street stop. When she got to 97th Street, she turned left. She came to a stop in front of PS163, and flashed back to the previous night.

It was close to the end of her shift, and Sango was doing one last patrol. An unearthly glow had drawn her attention, as well as the sound of two muffled voices. Sango’s ears perked and she walked toward the sound, which was coming from somewhere in the school. Before she could so much as reach for her flashlight, flares of red light erupted from the building. Then a ring of electricity seemed to ascend, filling with black while it spun. At the point that the ring was facing her, Sango saw the fleshy scalp and head of a muscled man start crawling out of the hole. But this figure did not have a face. As if it was a mannequin that they never finished molding.

“Police! Stop where you are!” Sango reacted on instinct, her gun already unholstered and in her hands.

“ _ Someone’s there!” _ The voice was distant and raspy, so Sango could only barely make out the words.

She couldn’t take her eyes off of whatever grotesque creature was currently crawling out of the black, but in her peripheral vision she  _ swore _ she’d seen movement in the school. Then suddenly, the ring began to wobble and destabilize, before collapsing in on itself, taking the faceless figure with it.

As soon as it was gone, Sango charged into the school, hoping to find the owners of the voices. In part to understand what the hell they’d done, and in  _ hopes _ that she’d seen some elaborate prank. But even as she checked every room in that school, there was not a single soul. Whomever had nearly set the faceless man free had escaped.

Sango should have stayed at the damn school, collecting evidence, but she was so rattled that she’d run out of there and back to her car. She’d driven back to the precinct and caught the night shift captain. When he laughed at her hilarious “joke,” she probably should have figured out how the rest of it was going to go. But no, she decided to extend her pain by arguing. And then by telling  _ her _ captain in the morning.  And that was why she was now on forced vacation, to “relax” so she stopped “seeing things.”

But it  _ had _ happened. She was there! And now, she was going to fucking prove it. Prove to them  _ all _ that something had happened the night before at PS163.

Sango didn’t have much time before the school opened, so she would have to work fast. She thought back to where  _ exactly _ that sprite lightning had originated. It was… somewhere over the center of the school. And the voices the night before. Sango strained her brain, focusing on the shout of “someone’s here.” Had it… echoed? Finally, wherever they were, they had been able to escape without running by her, which would imply the back of the building.

Sango walked carefully to the gymnasium, ready to flash her badge if anyone asked. But… no one did, so she scanned the perimeter of the gym. Something about the back corner, behind the bleachers, called to her gut. Sango walked purposefully to the spot, stopping just as she passed the risers.

The alcove was isolated, but with access to several escape paths. There was one corner in particular that was obscured from every entrance, and when Sango looked at it, she smiled. A blackened circle was burned into the lacquered floor. Sango imagined that  _ that _ was the location of whatever it was that made the ring in the sky. When she put her hand on it, she found that it  _ was _ burned into the floor. Sango pulled out her phone and took some pictures, including one with her foot in the frame for scale.

Then something else caught Sango’s eye. On the way to the emergency exit, there was a crumpled piece of paper. It was nondescript, and it could have easily been garbage. But something told her to pick it up. At the sound of voices, Sango hurried and grabbed the paper, before slipping out the back door.

The trail that ran behind the school made for an easy getaway, and meant that whoever was there, whoever made the burn mark on the floor and raised the faceless man could have fled, away from Sango’s notice.

The puzzle made sense, and it reassured her that  _ she hadn’t been seeing things _ . Someone had been in that gymnasium and did something that opened the sky to make a creature crawl out. Now all Sango had to do was figure out  _ who _ and  _ what. _ Sango opened the crumpled piece of paper. Written in tiny neat handwriting, were the words:  _ 2nd Ave & 42nd Street _ .

Sango’s eyes widened. It couldn’t be a coincidence. The address was across Manhattan. It was written on a piece of paper lying between the scorch mark and the exit, dropped as whomever it was fled the night before.

Sango picked up her pace out of the school grounds, and back toward the subway. Usually, she would run back to the precinct and alert them to the situation. But… not this time. Because Capt. Kaijinbo had told her that this  _ thing _ that was happening was probably all in her head. She wouldn’t have any backup in this particular investigation.

Running directly to the next target would be rash,  _ especially _ given what had tried to crawl out of the hole the first time. True, the people had run the moment they heard her voice, but that just meant they would probably be prepared the next time. And Sango was alone.

_ No.  
_ Not until she had a better handle on what she was dealing with.  
She needed to prepare for what came next.   
It was time to put on her detective’s hat and do the work.

When Sango arrived at her apartment, she pulled out her laptop and began searching. “Faceless man” pulled up mostly a lot of creepypasta bad photoshops and ghost stories, but there was nothing about strange ringed black holes in the sky. She searched for whether there was some significance to 42nd and 2nd, and while it sat amongst the South American consulates and buildings, nothing stuck out. No strange phenomena, no red flashes, nothing.

“At least they haven’t struck… yet,” Sango murmured to herself.

And at least that area was heavily trafficked and covered in security cameras. If they struck there, there would be videos of it.

Sango then typed “black hole ring of light New York” into Google, just in case. When the search result came back, Sango groaned. It was an article from  _ Musashi World News _ : the “Aliens Ate My Baby” tabloid.

“Of  _ course… _ ” Sango grumbled, but when she saw the teaser that accompanied the article, she gasped.

The image was of a black hole in the sky, surrounded by a white ring.  _ Just like _ the ring she saw over the school. “ARE DEMONS TRYING TO INFILTRATE NEW YORK CITY? Find out more below the cut!,” the article read. Sango clicked, then opened the video. Some annoying tourist type was screaming, but Sango saw the neon white ring and the pitch black beyond it. It was  _ exactly the same _ as the school. Then, a small tuft of pink hair appeared and the video went blank.

“Holy shit,” Sango murmured.

She would bet her apartment that that video was legit. Sango read the article…  _ Strange phenomenon was seen around Times Square _ …  _ Could it be that demons are trying to enter our plane through these portals?...  _ The article claimed that the event had happened a few days ago. And... the article sounded  _ legit _ and even  _ researched _ .

Sango scoffed. Writers for  _ Musashi World News _ were creative writers at best, and crackpots at worst. But… this… Kagome Higurashi seemed to have done research. There was a little map of the witnesses to the event and where they were standing, triangulating it to 42nd St & 11th Ave.

“So… these are happening all around New York.” Sango’s eyes widened.

She could go back to Capt. Kaijinbo and show him this!   
She could explain that share  _ saw _ exactly the same thing!   
And that she thought she knew the address of the next “portal!”

No.

This would make it all worse.  _ Musashi World News: _ even if Sango was  _ certain _ that this was the one needle in a haystack  _ true _ story in the tabloid, no one would believe her.

Sango sighed, then typed one more thing into google: the name  _ Kagome Higurashi _ . 

When she looked at the links and bios flooding her screen, her stomach dropped. Those results had made one thing become immensely clear: she needed to find Kagome Higurashi. And she needed to find her as soon as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick note: Update for Portal will be skipping 12/18 (I will have something else come out that day), but will resume on 12/25!


	7. The Demon Hunters

“What is that?” Kagome peeked her head over the lid of the enormous cardboard box that Kagura had just thrown onto her apartment floor.

“Things I am gonna need if we want to start to figure out what the weird dudes are up to,” Kagura grinned, but at Kikyo’s glare, she cleared her throat. “Electronic scraps. My manager likes me. I can fix nearly anything a little old lady throws my way, so he lets me clean the carcasses before they go off to be recycled.”

“Clean the carcasses?” Kikyo’s nose scrunched up at Kagura’s words, but there was no doubt that she was interested.

Kikyo certainly would not be in Kagome’s apartment at that moment, shooting the shit with Kagura about scrap electronics, and scribbling in her notebook, if she thought that there was nothing to do, nothing to search for. In the course of only a couple of weeks, Kikyo had gone from demanding that she take down her book to spending her spare time in Kagome’s with Kagura, arguing about how one could incite one of the “events.”

Kagome, for her part, had started trying to find the  _ instigators _ : the two men that Kagura described. They stuck with her. She wanted to know these people who seemed to be using her book to make portals  _ materialize _ in the real world. She wanted to meet them, to ask how they’d done it, and maybe find out  _ why _ . Did they have reiki, like she and Kikyo did? Were they as fascinated by demons as she was? Did… did they  _ believe _ her?

But even more, Kagome wanted to see the silver-haired man for herself. Desperately. And she wanted to ask him if something weird had happened to him about 10 years earlier… something that  _ she’d _ experienced too. But… Kikyo and Kagura didn’t need to know that part.

“Pull out the valuable or useful electronics in defunct computers and junk. ‘Clean the carcasses…’ Jesus, it’s like you’ve never touched a machine before,” Kagura scoffed, which led to Kikyo scowling. “Anyway. Here’s a little bit of fun stuff.” Kagura motioned proudly over her box of electronic goodies. “So…  _ Doctor _ , you gonna help me figure out how to turn your math into machines?”

“I… I still am not convinced that they  _ can _ be turned into machines.” Kikyo folded her arms.

Kagome rolled her eyes. She was getting used to this now. Kikyo would fold her arms and scowl and scoff, and Kagura would needle her until she suddenly lost it and yelled back. Kagura always got a strange little smirk on her face. At first, it reminded Kagome of the way Souta would grin after he successfully riled  _ her _ up, but Kagura’s was… different. There was a playfully earnest glint to it. Like it was…  _ a flirtation _ . With  _ Kikyo _ .

When she and Kikyo lived together, Kagome… didn’t shy away from bringing people home. It was a fun way to blow off steam after a particularly tough assignment for the newspaper. She wasn’t exactly a man-a-night type of woman, but… Kagome did appreciate a hot man pressing her into her mattress. Kikyo hadn’t dated  _ anyone _ in college, Kagome fairly certain. And Kikyo hadn’t brought any man—any _ one _ —home to their apartment. Kagome just assumed that Kikyo was highly religious (wrong), or maybe ace (still a maybe possibility?), or extremely private (though keeping something like sex from a roommate would have been extremely difficult). But now, watching the way Kikyo snuck glances at Kagura and the way her cheeks puffed out as Kagura teased, Kagome thought maybe she’d had it all wrong. A  _ lot _ made sense: Kikyo’s caginess about dating, her claim that she was “too busy” for dating, and the assertion that all physics dudes sucked and she never wanted anything to do with them (that one probably have had a vein of truth to it…). Kikyo hadn’t met the right person, the right  _ woman _ , back in college, and still seemed to be working through that revelation.

“Welp, sounds like we get to do some  _ experimentation _ huh?” Kagura waggled her eyebrows, which served to deepen Kikyo’s scowl. But Kagome’s eyes brightened, because it looked like maybe— _ maybe _ Kagura was pressing up against Kikyo’s resistance to accepting that part of herself. Though, even as she liked the double-entendre play, there had been direct consequences of Kagura’s last  _ experimentation _ that she needed to put a stop to.

“ **NOPE.** The last time you started messing around with stuff in here, I had to repaint a room,” Kagome interjected; the banter between them was cute, but she was not going to support Kagura’s further experimentation.

“Oh come on, the fire alarm didn’t even go off!” Kagura grumbled, but Kagome’s point was taken. “My apartment is the size of a closet. Kikyo—what about you? Could we grab some of that sweet CUNY real estate?”

“No.” Kikyo’s voice grew stern. “My colleagues already think that I’m a diversity hire. I’m not inviting my two ghost-hunting friends to work in my non-existent lab space…”

“Aw she called us  _ friends! _ ” Kagura’s words made Kikyo’s cheeks puff out again.

Kagome hadn’t missed the admission, either. Kikyo had just acknowledged that they were all  _ friends _ ! Kagome… well, Kagome was way happier about that than she let on. If she had known that all she had to do to get Kikyo back in her life was go behind her back and publish their book about demons, she would have done it a long time ago!

Or maybe she could have just called her and asked her to coffee to catch up.   
But publishing  _ Demons Among Us! _ was a lot more fun. And it was a good revenue stream (well, more of a trickle...).

“Y—you know what I mean,” Kikyo huffed, but neither missed the little curl to the edge of her lips. “I’m a theorist. They don’t give us lab space. So… even if I was  _ willing _ , there’s not much I can do.”

“Aw damn!” Kagura moaned, pawing at the box of electronics in the box in front of her. “How the hell am I gonna find out if my zappy zapper works?”

“Zappy… zapper?” Kagome and Kikyo asked Kagura in unison.

“Yeah, basically it—” Kagura started, only to be abruptly interrupted by a loud and clear knock on the door.

“Hold that thought…” Kagome called, jogging toward her door.

Even though she hadn’t known Kagura long, words like “zappy zapper” were usually followed by both extremely interesting and extremely dangerous demonstrations of Kagura’s… engineering genius.  _ Mad _ genius, but genius.

Kagome opened the door to find an unfamiliar woman staring back at her. The woman had long, straight brunette hair that was held back in a low ponytail. Her large eyes were dark brown, nearly the color of black coffee. She wore a black leather jacket and a pair of forest green slacks. While her face was soft, with apple cheeks and full lips, she wore an expression of stone, one that looked unnatural on her face. Whoever she was, it was clear that she had come to Kagome’s doorstep with a goal.

“Can… I help you?” Kagome asked, trying to break the woman’s intensity.

“Are you Kagome Higurashi?” the woman demanded with such authority Kagome took a step backward.

“Who’s askin’?” Kagome challenged, which only served to make the stern woman’s scowl deepen.

“I’m Offi—Sango Tajiyama,” the woman stuttered, changing her words mid-sentence. “I saw the articles that you wrote for Musashi World News, and I have some questions.”

“Do… do I need a lawyer?” Kagome folded her arms, because now that the woman had spoken, now she’d almost let ‘ _ officer’ _ slip out of her mouth, Kagome could feel it: the authoritative aura that came from her. Whoever else this Sango was, she was definitely a cop.

“N—no,” Sango stuttered, the stern look on her face finally dropping, shifting into a mild panic. “I… I saw something. On the Upper West Side. That looked  _ exactly _ like the video in that article you posted.”

_ Now this is interesting, _ Kagome thought.   
Another event? In a completely different part of the city? When had it happened? What had Sango seen? Did Sango have a video of the event? Did she see anything suspicious? And was there  _ yet another _ weird creature that emerged from the portal? Did she see the silver-haired man? Kagome nearly invited Sango in without probing further, but… luckily her ‘I know my rights’ brain kicked in.

“So let me just… understand what is going on here. For myself.” Kagome tuned into Sango’s face. She might have been a journalist for a rag, but she could usually catch people’s involuntary reactions to things as long as she paid close enough attention, and she wanted to test Sango’s sincerity. “You’re not here as NYPD. You’re here because… you saw a portal open that looked like the article, and you wanted to talk to me about it?”

“Y—yes,” Sango answered, and Kagome could tell that she was assessing her right back. Suddenly, Sango’s face changed, as if she’d made a decision. “I’m… I’m on a leave of absence. My precinct— _ uh _ —thought I was seeing things or making something up. But I  _ know _ what I saw. And your article made me think that you might be able to tell me what the hell is going on.”

Sango’s words and face told Kagome everything she needed to know. Sango was at her door because Sango didn’t have anywhere else to go. And instead of trying to throw authority around or lie or even just obfuscate, Sango had chosen to tell Kagome the truth. To lay it out there: Sango had seen a portal open, and the NYPD hadn’t believed her when she spoke up.

“Come on in,” Kagome smiled, moving her body out of the doorway, “and tell us  _ everything. _ ”

Sango’s face brightened up at Kagome’s invitation, but then her eyes narrowed once more, “ _ Us _ ?”

Kagome closed the door behind Sango and walked toward her living room, smirking at Kikyo and Kagura, who were standing awkwardly in the living room staring at the guest.

“ _ Officer  _ Sango Tajiyama? Meet Dr. Kikyo Sekimuro.” Kagome emphasized the ‘officer’, but pointed to Kikyo, who seemed to have an invisible string holding her body up from how stiff she was, then pointed at Kagura, who somehow seemed to be leaning against an invisible wall in an attempt to appear casual. “And Kagura Arashi.” Kagome then turned back to Sango. “We’re working together to try to figure out who is opening these portals, and how.”

“I recognize the name Sekimuro…” Sango eyed Kikyo appraisingly. “You’re the co-author of  _ Demons Among Us! _ , correct?”

“Look you have a fan!” Kagura exclaimed, which seemed to stiffen Kikyo even more, if that was possible.

“More… when I found the article and found your name, I… investigated you,” Sango answered. “I have not yet read the book, but I have one on order. My bookshop has promised it will be in tomorrow.”

“You could have just gotten the e-book,” Kagome suggested.

“I like supporting my local businesses. Amazon is the reason that the small shops are going under,” Sango answered back. “Anyway… do you believe that the people responsible for these phenomena are using your book in such a way?”

“Hell yeah they are,” Kagura huffed. “The silver-haired dude and Wormtongue were definitely running around with a machine on their back. And as soon as I get my hands on the silicone insulators I need, I am gonna be able to make one from your damn book.”

Kikyo’s eyes bugged out at just how…  _ open _ Kagura was being with information. In front of a cop.

“Does your book explain how to make these devices?” Sango’s voice was now shrewd.

“No! Of course not!” Kikyo huffed. “It was a stupid college hobby that… that  _ I had no intention of publishing _ !”

“Brah—weird portal things are opening randomly throughout the city and you’re  _ mad _ that you wrote a book that helps explain things?” Kagura grumbled. “You didn’t write  _ here is an instruction guide on how to make a transdimensional portal that happens to link to the demon world if you just glue shit the right way… _ but here we are. Your theories are good, and an engineer with a good enough brain and some spare time could figure it out…”

“Was the event reported in Musashi World News the first?” Sango asked, her attention on Kagome.

“Yes, it was,” Kagome answered; she’d scoured the internet after the creepy baby incident, but there was nothing similar.

The  _ only thing _ that had any connection was a memory:  _ her _ memory. The tingle and the silver hair. Kagome had not stopped thinking about that day near the park since Kagura had told them about the man with the silver hair. It haunted her. And she’d never been so grateful that Kikyo had forgotten about their talks all those years ago, about demons and other dimensions and, well,  _ experiences _ . Because she wasn’t ready to talk again about the fact that finding the people making the portals was  _ personal _ , because of the silver-haired man.

“Well I look forward to reading the book,” Sango sighed. “Now… would you like me to tell you about what I witnessed?”

“Hell yes!” Kagura answered, then bounced over to one of Kagome’s chairs.

“Do you mind if I record?” Kagome asked, pulling out her phone. She didn’t want to miss a single word of Sango’s story.

“Are you going to publish it in your tabloid?” Sango challenged, the shrewdness back in her voice.

“N—no. No I won’t,” Kagome answered. Having a cop verify that one of their outlandish stories was true would have been a treasure trove for the paper, but… Kagome needed to hear what Sango had to say far more than she needed to give Musashi World News the story. Whatever was happening was bigger than her job.

“Okay. Then you can record,” Sango answered. “But… if these events  _ have _ been happening, and you’re working on ways to emulate these things, then I want to be heavily involved.”

“Is that an order officer?” Kagome sneered, catching Sango off-guard.

“No,” Sango scowled back, ”I saw something potentially dangerous trying to crawl out of a black hole in the sky. And I know that whoever it was that opened that …  _ portal _ … is going to try again somewhere else.” Sango sighed. “You’re… you’re the only people who take this seriously, so… looks like if I want to do something and stop these from happening, I need to team up with you.” Then, Sango leaned in a little bit closer. “And if you want to keep investigating, you are going to need me. Because I know the location of the next portal.”

“Well well well,” Kagura grinned, “looks like we’ve assembled quite the team of demon hunters!”

“Demon hunters, huh?” Kagome mused. “I can get behind that.” She then pressed record on her phone. “Now, Sango, please tell us  _ everything _ .”


	8. An Easier Choice Than She Thought

_ 2nd Ave & 42nd Street _ .  
Sango checked that address every day. But thus far, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

After Sango had spoken of the faceless man, the three women—Kagome, Kikyo and Kagura—had opened up about everything. They spoke about the book (which Sango had now read), they talked about the perps (a man who looked like Wormtongue from  _ Lord of the Rings _ and a man with silver hair), and they talked about the other phenomena.

When she watched Kagura’s video, Sango tried to picture the event  _ she _ had witnessed (why the hell had she not thought to pull out her own phone and record? Or even just turn on her body cam?). She couldn’t be 100% sure, but she was fairly certain that the portal she saw had been larger and more stable than both videos. As if the perps were  _ learning and improving  _ after each subsequent event. Just more evidence that what she’d seen was  _ real _ .

And soon, the women she’d at first suspected of being crackpots had accepted her into their little “demon-hunting” band. They didn’t call her Madonna, and they didn’t tell her that her ideas were stupid. They  _ listened _ when she talked and asked for her advice and opinions as they all worked to confront and deploy the  _ moment _ something seemed off at 2nd and 42nd.

Maybe that was why Sango had… made the accommodations she had made…   
...Why now the demon hunters were headquartered in Sango’s basement in her brownstone in Queens…

“Hey! Anyone want Chinese? I’m gonna order,” Sango called down into her basement. “Menu is on the refrigerator down there.”

“General Tso’s please!” Kikyo’s voice echoed back up the stairs. “I can pay this time, if you’d like!”

“Pork fried rice… and wonton soup?” Kagome answered next.

“Surprise me!” Kagura said finally. “I’m indecisive and hungry when I work. So you could get me a poopoo platter actually made of  _ poo _ and I’d eat it.”

“Thanks for the visual Kagura…” Kikyo drawled. (Even from upstairs, Sango could detect the flirtation…)

Sango didn’t know when or why she’d offered up her basement, given Kagura’s penchant for accidentally setting things on fire. She didn’t know when she’d become their den mother (along with Kikyo… thank goodness…), but she had, and she liked it. Turned out that not being surrounded by the oppressively toxic environment of her precinct was…  _ freeing _ !

Sango grabbed her phone and put in the order. It would be a half hour before the delivery guy came, so she headed down into the basement to join her fellow “demon hunters.”

“So… he said he can meet us tonight…” Kagome was saying, but then as soon as she saw Sango, she avoided eye contact.

“Okay Kagome… spit the rest out,” Sango drawled.

“Miroku is… a friend.” Kagome still looked too guilty  _ not _ to be hiding something. “He—he’s been an associate of mine for a long time… He’s a…  _ locksmith _ .”

Now Sango knew that Kagome was hiding something.

“So… this…  _ Miroku _ … who you know from  _ work _ … will help us get  _ access  _ to the  _ building… _ ” Sango knew where this was going.

“Yes  _ Officer _ ,” Kagome snarled, “if you don’t want to be a part of this, you don’t have to…”

Sango narrowed her eyes. Kagome was right. She had to choose. The badge or the demon hunters.

But… the badge had already abandoned her.

“I don’t want to see  _ any of it _ ,” Sango grumbled. She didn’t miss the look of glee that appeared on Kagome’s face.

“So… tonight around 8, we’ll meet Miroku near the WPIX building and we’ll pop up to the roof,” Kagome affirmed. “We don’t know when they are going to strike, or where, but I figure if we get some of our gear up there, we’ll be ready for them!”

“Now now… don’t go getting cocky on me, Kagome,” Kagura lectured, “Kikyo and I have  _ barely _ worked out the kinks of the zappy zapper— _ sorry about the burn marks by the way Sango _ —and we have only two working prototypes, which you two candlesticks are gonna need to man.”

“Stop calling me a candlestick!” Kikyo huffed, a bandage wrapped around her right hand. “ _ Especially _ since the  _ person  _ around here who got burned was  _ me! _ ”

“Uh huh. Well, you and Kagome are the only two people I’ve  _ ever _ met that have reiki. So unless you want me popping off my mouth about the two  _ mikos _ hanging around, you should just let me call you both candlesticks,” Kagura countered.

“Just because most people don’t go showing off in front of you doesn’t mean you haven’t met more,” Kagome sighed.

“Well they should. Because it’s fucking cool.” Kagura folded her arms and looked away, but seemed to recognize that the argument was over. 

Kagome and Kikyo’s little chuckle seemed to mean that they understood that too.

“...Now. Back to the zappy-zappers…” Kagura said. “At least… until lunch arrives.”

Sango rolled her eyes. That was how Kagura was. She spent every free minute she had using her hands to build something, test something, or (often) swear at something that had not worked. In the case of the “zappy zappers” (though Sango preferred Kikyo’s term for them, “reiki blasters,”) it had taken Kagura a while to work out the kinks.

It explained the char marks that lined the cement floor, and one or two on the ceiling. It also explained why Sango had stocked up on fire extinguishers.

“So we aim this at the thing—demon I guess?—that is coming out of the portal and it should trap them like in a lasso?” Kikyo fingered the little nozzle at the end of the cylindrical metallic device. “And add a little bit of our reiki and … it will shoot at them?”

“Precisely,” Kagome beamed, “I tested it out yesterday.”

“In my basement?” Sango punched the bridge of her nose, then looked around for any new char marks in her wall.

“Outside in the alley, “ Kagura scoffed. “What do you take me for?”

“Someone who left multiple burn marks in my basement?” Sango offered, but Kagura waved her off.

“I fully plan on having these out of your basement and on the roof of Channel 11,” Kagura explained, as if that would placate Sango? “Which is why we’re just testing the stability of these things a couple more times…”

“How many of those times are going to involve fire extinguishers?” Sango sighed, before waving them out and into the alley.

She figured it was better she didn’t watch, didn’t  _ know _ .

Luckily, the flashes and the bangs and the booms that emanated from the alley seemed to be going as expected, because it was never followed by frantic shouting, or a sploosh of fire extinguisher activity. It meant… it meant that the experiments were getting somewhere.

Sango ate lunch with the women up in her living room, and she watched the security cameras that Kagome had “happened to find” that overlooked 2nd & 42nd as the light of the afternoon waned and sunset took them. Everything looked normal, and had now for a week.

Could this  _ really _ have been a wild goose chase? Perhaps Sango really had gone off the deep end this time, seeing things in the sky then letting three delusional women set up camp at her house to build devices that threatened to burn down the neighborhood…

But Sango  _ knew _ what she saw. And even as the police training and her logical brain screamed for her to find any other answer than ‘demons are trying to infiltrate New York City,’ she couldn’t come up with anything. And even as they were all weird, Sango really  _ liked _ the three women. They were genuine, and interesting, and nonjudgmental.

Kikyo and Kagura were both really talented physicists. For Kikyo, that was evident from the theories in  _ Demons Among Us! _ as well as from her faculty position at CUNY. Kagura Arashi might have been a counter clerk at Best Buy, but from the looks of it (yes, Sango had investigated her. She was currently blowing up her basement, okay?), Kagura was also a savant in Engineering Physics at Columbia. So the taking theory and throwing together machines for it… not outside the realm of possibility. Then finally, Kagome Higurashi. She wrote a lot of stories for Musashi World News that could only be referred to as  _ creative writing _ , but she was also the writer who often found the stories with veins of truth. She was as shrewd as Sango (and as bull-headed), and she did have a  _ different understanding  _ of the law as Sango, but… Sango admired her too.

Whatever they were, whether chasing ghosts or chasing the real thing, working with these three women was the most fun Sango had had in years, and that meant something.

“YES! YES! Yes.” Kagura’s squeals were coming from the alley. “It’s  _ a-l-i-v-e! _ ”

That was enough to catch Sango’s attention, and she jumped up to join the other three in the alley.

Kagome was standing, with the metallic looking cylinder strapped to her back, looking a bit shell-shocked.

“It… it worked!” Kikyo called out, jogging over to help Kagome out of the device.

“Hell yes it did, I told you I would tweak it into behaving!” Kagura squealed as Kikyo handed her the machine. “So Kagome, how did it feel? Think you can inject your reiki in there  _ just like that _ ?”

“I… I think I can!” Kagome said, shaking off the momentary paralysis of whatever energy field she’d been enveloped in from Kagura’s device. “It’s just a little spark and  _ boom _ , this thing sort of connects to my aura and I tell it where to point and it  _ does _ .”

“Connects?” Kagura asked, and started scratching her chin—a sign that something about Kagome’s words had gotten her brain thinking again.

Then a ping broke everyone’s attention, and Kagome reached down and pulled out her phone.

“Looks like Miroku’s ready to meet us,” Kagome said while furiously typing a reply. “You ready, girls?”

“No— _YES—_ No…” Kagura muttered, but started packing up the devices in the travel suitcases anyway.

“It’s going to go great,” Kikyo said, putting a reassuring hand on Kagura’s shoulder.

And the tender look that passed between the two did not escape Sango’s (or Kagome’s) notice.

“Come on,” Kikyo said, grabbing the second suitcase, with the second machine. “We taking your van?”

“Oh, listen to you having faith now that my van will turn on!” Kagura teased. “Unless Sango lets us borrow—”

“No,” Sango drawled; the cop car was definitely off-limits.

“Fine. But don’t complain about the smell,” Kagura countered, and the women chuckled and climbed in.

It wasn’t the most comfortable drive, and Kagura certainly  _ drove _ like she was some sort of demon, but that was also pretty standard for New York drivers, and her van  _ did _ have seatbelts. Then, before they knew it, Kagura was pulling into one of the pay-to-park structures (which Kikyo begrudgingly handed her money for).

“So, where are we meeting Miroku?” Kikyo asked Kagome.

“Texting him now,” Kagome said, her fingers clicking away at the screen. “He’ll meet us here.”

They hadn’t had to wait long before they heard footsteps echoing through the concrete. Soon Sango made out the figure of someone, a man—a  _ tall _ man—emerging from around the row of cars. Sango tried to swallow down her reaction to him, but it was hard. Because… well… he was the manifestation of everything she found attractive in a man.

He was tall (at least 6 feet), and had wild black hair that came down to his shoulders. As he got closer, Sango saw that his eyes were deep indigo, and while his face had a boyish charm, something in his eyes spoke to having an old soul. At seeing them, his lips curled into a toothy smile, showing off perfect, pearly teeth. He wore a deep purple button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, which was also unbuttoned far enough that Sango could see his black ribbed tank below. His jeans were deep blue and  _ tight _ (shit… Sango needed not to pay attention to just  _ how tight _ ). Miroku closed the final distance to the group of women, pulling Kagome in for a giant hug, then leaning in and pressing a sloppy kiss to her forehead.

“It’s been too long, love.” Miroku’s voice was deep and silken, causing Sango to scowl. She didn’t like how much she  _ liked _ his voice.

At her barely audible contempt, Miroku turned his eyes toward the three of them, but his indigo eyes widened when he took Sango in.

“You are  _ definitely _ someone I need to know,” Miroku showed off his white teeth, grabbing Sango’s hand with his own, then leaning down to it and pressing his lips to it. Sango  _ really hated _ the way that the contact with his lips sent little sparks of  _ feelings _ through her body. “Name is Miroku.”

“ _ Officer _ Tajiyama,” Sango deadpanned, and she couldn’t keep a smirk from painting across her face at the minute jerk and double-take Miroku did. Unfortunately, in the very next moment, Miroku’s look turned more shrewd, more  _ observant _ . She knew that look. She’d  _ used _ that look.

“You certainly have an interesting moonlighting gig,” Miroku spoke smoothly and suavely, never breaking his indigo eyes away from Sango’s.

“Sounds like you have a  _ more interesting _ moonlighting gig,” Sango shot back.

“Ahhh, well… given you are one of the women who is using my…  _ moonlighting services _ … I guess…” Miroku leaned his head close enough to Sango that his breath tickled her skin, “We’ll just have to call a truce.”

Sango officially hated Miroku.

“Uhhh. This is Kikyo, and Kagura…” Kagome broke Miroku’s gaze away from Sango, which was absolutely for the best. Because Sango wanted to arrest Miroku (...she’d figure out for what later. After she had him in cuffs).

“Nice to meet you both,” Miroku bowed, but then looked directly back at Sango.

“So… you’ve figured out where we want to go and how to get us there?” Kagome interrupted; she was not beating around the bush.

“Yeah, everything’s set. Ayumi says hi,” Miroku answered. “Follow my lead.”

Kagome fell in right behind Miroku, and after a furtive look, the others followed suit. Sango took the last position, because… she really  _ really _ didn’t want to think about  _ why _ they were following some pre-ordained path navigated by a purveyor of…  _ special locksmithing _ services. And it didn’t help that Sango couldn’t stop herself from looking at his physique: his arms were well-muscled, and she… needed to stop looking at his ass. Because it looked like two delectable scoops of ice cream under his midnight blue jeans.

“This is more roundabout than usual,” Kagome murmured, just loud enough for everyone to hear over the rolling wheels of the pair of suitcases being toted by Kagura and Kikyo.

“This is a bigger job than usual,” Miroku countered, but he did not slow his pace and he did not look back. “Why, by the way, are you headed to a roof?”

“None of your business,” Kagome scoffed. “If you’re gonna be nosy, I at least deserve a discount.”

“Please  _ please _ tell me how much he charged for what we are about to do,” Sango said; she couldn’t help herself. Every word Miroku spoke bore further into her body, exciting her. She hated it. She wanted to scare him, to remind him that she could throw cuffs around his wrists for so much as  _ discussing _ anything illegal in front of her.

...Problem was, she was there too,  _ participating _ in what was certainly an illegal activity… and he  _ knew _ he had her there.

But that didn’t mean a little bit of fun entertaining picturing slapping cuffs on the tall man with the ice cream scoop ass…

“A date,” Miroku answered. “With her hot cop friend.”

Sango tried to make words, but none came out. It was made worse by the laughter of two of the women in front of her.  _ She officially hated Miroku _ .

“I swear Miroku, remember what I did to you the last time you sexually harassed one of my friends?” Kagome growled, shutting both Kikyo and Kagura’s laughter up. “We don’t want a repeat of that, right?”

“It wasn’t  _ my fault _ that Eri was being so… flirtatious!” Miroku’s voice  _ cracked _ —apparently whatever Kagome did to Miroku the last time… had had an effect.

“ _ Nice _ is different from  _ flirtatious, _ ” Kagome replied. “Leave Sango alone.”

“Sango…” Miroku tasted Sango’s name on his tongue.

Sango growled under her breath, mostly because the way he said her name… it was doing things to her. Things she was  _ not okay with _ . Asking her on a date was  _ not something she was okay with. _ She wouldn’t be, she couldn’t be.

But the conversations had at least distracted them on their way to their destination. As they rounded the corner of 2nd and 42nd, Miroku turned around.

“The cameras run on a loop. She’s in there right now, so as soon as the crosswalk lights, we’re gonna need to hurry.” Miroku spoke with a commanding voice, looking around at the light traffic that the UN district had at night. “Follow me. Exactly.”

This was it. Before that moment, everything Sango had done was technically inside of the law. She was on a vacation talking to her friends about strange demonic things. The machine parts had been obtained legally, and even the experiments that Kagura had been running had been completely up to code.

This, on the other hand, was  _ different _ . This was not ‘turn the other direction and pretend the boom is totally normal.’ This was not ‘I know a guy.’ This was breaking and entering. Totally, completely, utterly illegal. And the only thing they had to go on, to tell them that it might be okay, was a piece of paper in a school. Sango had been fighting herself on it all day.

Did she trust her instincts enough to…  _ do this _ ?   
Did she trust Kagome, Kikyo, and Kagura?  
Did she trust—no. She did  _ not _ trust Miroku.

“Sango… you coming?” Kagome’s voice was soft, and her eyes were narrow as if she were reading  _ exactly _ what Sango was thinking. “If… if this turns out to be a wild goose chase, then… at least we can say we did our best, right?”

That was the thing. If nothing happened, they did nothing more than hang out on the roof of a building. And if  _ something  _ happened, but they stayed away, they would regret it— _ she _ would regret it.

And that was her answer.

“Let’s go.” Sango knew the words were a promise, a choice. She was going to see this to the end; she had to.

Before she could stuff it back down, she felt a smile blossom on her face. She was going to see if demons were infiltrating New York City, even if she had to bend some rules to do it.

Sango also didn’t miss Miroku’s smile, in response to hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting to write some Miroku/Sango material gave me all the _feelz_ for my dear friend [SapphireStarXX](https://sapphirestarxx.tumblr.com/)! A hardcore lovely MirSan shipper that you should all be reading!


	9. The Fourth Portal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Allusions to violence and death.

If anyone asked Kikyo about the past few weeks, while she would never admit  _ what  _ she was doing to anyone, she would admit that she was having  _ fun _ . More fun than she had had in… a decade. It was unsettling, and it was exciting. Here she was, at this very moment,  _ about to break into a building _ to go hang out on the roof and… wait for something.

Kikyo had tried to remain skeptical, had tried to walk away from the folly, and dammit, she  _ couldn’t _ . First, it was Kagura wandering into Kagome’s and Kikyo’s argument and…  _ doing things _ to her, and now… Sango seeking them out because she’d also witnessed an event. And  _ both of them _ had talked about the importance of the book. The book Kikyo had never wanted published, now, apparently, a book that was being used to open portals to the demon world (possibly), a book that had physical theories that in practice  _ worked _ (according to Kagura) and… a book that ultimately had brought Kikyo together with some amazing women.

She hadn’t realized how much she missed talking to women until she had women to talk to. The physics department… well, there was a  _ reason _ they kept claiming she was a diversity hire, because in their small department, she  _ was  _ the only woman. Because she really did seem to have been brought in as an ‘oh shit we have no women in our physics department, look there’s one!’ hire. It meant that no matter how competent she was, no one respected her. No matter what her accomplishments were and how much hard work she put in, or simply just being  _ better than _ , she would never be respected. It was  _ fucking _ exhausting.

So being here, goofing off with Kagome like they were back in college, talking about good sci-fi books with Sango, and, well  _ everything _ with Kagura, Kikyo really did see the poisoned fish bowl she had gotten herself stuck in being a tenure-track faculty in her  _ specific _ department. Although the field of physics in general was mostly the same when it came to women. That, at least, was what she kept telling Kagura.

Kagura…

Kikyo didn’t know what to say, what to  _ think _ , of the petite woman who wore jade earrings and threw her hair up into a sloppy bun that always looked perfectly put together. And there was the whole ‘definitely not a Best Buy counter brain’ part of Kagura. So when she finally revealed that she was a non-traditional engineering physics student at Columbia, Kikyo hadn’t so much as blinked in surprise. Because, she’d come to understand the depth of Kagura’s competence.

Kagura was smart in the way that Kikyo’s most talented instrumentation colleagues were smart. She had a knack for picking up the theory and just closing her eyes and picturing the  _ machine _ that could make the theory come to life. It was…  _ intoxicating _ . It kept Kikyo up at night, thinking about what she and Kagura would do next in the lab. Would they build the trap she’d theorized that was able to grab whatever it was from the portal? Or would they make further progress on creating the devices that  _ opened _ the portals?

Kikyo never quite knew what the two of them would get up to, but she found herself spending every possible hour she had available with Kagura… in Sango’s basement. And, well… Kikyo was starting to  _ feel things _ . Things she hadn’t fully come to terms with. Things… that had been stifled for too long in her life.

Things… that maybe,  _ just maybe _ , Kagura felt too. Because Kagura always seemed to know how to provoke those feelings. They were things that Kagome used to provoke too, in college. Feelings Kikyo had tried too hard to ignore or to run away from. Maybe that was why she’d broken her ties with Kagome so easily on her way to grad school? Because… she hadn’t been ready to talk about it, and Kagome, it was clear, would not have returned her feelings even if she  _ had _ said something. Was this also true of Kagura?

Kagura was weird, and invigorating.   
And maybe that was why Kikyo had stayed around this wild goose chase so long.

Because it felt great to have someone who turned her theories into reality. Someone who pushed her buttons and winked when she’d successfully gotten a rise. Someone who… who…  _ made it okay to feel the things she did _ . Just as Kagome all those years ago made it okay to  _ believe _ all the things Kikyo did.

And who knew?, Maybe there was some silver-haired guy and the stalker from Lord of the Rings running around and opening portals, after all. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. Kagura had video, and… Sango, a  _ cop _ , came to them with similar experiences.

But Kikyo wanted to experience it for herself. She’d said it was all because she wanted to believe, but the honest truth was, she wanted to  _ be a part of it _ .

That was why she was rolling a slightly unstable Van de Graaff generator down the street. One that could channel reiki into the electrical current that it output. It was a stroke of genius on Kagura’s part. Even as Kikyo was still a bit…  _ skeptical _ of whether or not they were going to get to  _ use _ the inventions on actual  _ demons _ , she had come this far, hadn’t she?

Kagome’s lockpick friend, Miroku, led them into an alleyway behind their target building and began to work on the double-doors there.

“This building took a while to… solve,” Miroku said as he pulled a small satchel out of the messenger bag he was holding. “You know how to pick ‘em, Higurashi…”

“So do you,” Kagome purred back, causing them both to chuckle.

Kikyo looked back and saw Sango had turned away, her eyes in the opposite direction from what Miroku was doing, but she flinched every time there was a clang or clunk coming from his toolset.

“Not easy, huh?” Kikyo walked over to Sango.

“No.” Sango crossed her arms protectively over her body. “Not easy.”

“But… you really really believe that these portals are opening,” Kikyo asked gently.

“I do,” Sango sighed, “because the alternative is… that I can no longer believe what I see.”

“I… really didn’t think that I would be here,” Kikyo admitted. “The book was… two daydreamers avoiding their homework. And now, here we are, because Kagome is an asshole who published without my permission.”

“Yeah, that was a bitch move,” Sango said, “but at least she doesn’t call you Madonna.”

Kikyo caught herself just before she started chuckling. “And at least she doesn’t tell me I don’t deserve to be here.”

“It’s amazing how much that counts for,” Sango sighed. “It makes you overlook things like… well… whatever-the-hell that dumbass over there is doing.”

When Kikyo saw the blush on Sango’s cheeks, she wanted to ask, but she refrained.

“It’s either going to be a whimper or a bang,” Kikyo said instead. “And… I really really want to find out which one it’s going to be.”

As if the universe heard Kikyo’s words, there was a jangle of a chain hitting the ground, followed by a clatter of doors being opened.

“In or out?” Miroku cooed; Kagome and Kagura were already through the doors and into the WPIX building.

“In!” Kikyo called back, and tugged on the travel suitcase with the reiki blaster, happy to see that Sango was right behind her.

They weaved through corridors branched with bare piping, until they came to a single freight elevator.

“We can get about 2 floors from the roof in this, but… I hope you’re prepared to lug,” Miroku said, and they all piled in. “It’s a pretty straight shot from where we get out to the roof access. This part of the building is opposite the studio, so should be relatively uncrowded.”

Kikyo gulped. She had sort of pictured breaking into a—well…  _ abandoned _ building, not one that was running 24 hours a day 7 days a week. WPIX seemed like an utterly boneheaded building to set up shop and try to open a portal to another world in. It made her wonder. What if they’d gotten the address wrong? What if… what if Sango had found nothing more than an errant piece of paper?

But it was too late. They were in this now. They would see it through. And hopefully, if they got caught, they wouldn’t be added to an FBI watchlist.

Thankfully Miroku seemed competent at his job, and got them to the stairwell that led up to the roof without anyone noticing. As they closed the door quietly behind them, they all began to climb.

“Motherfucker.” The swear words came from Kagura. “This thing wasn’t bad when it was strapped to my back, but holy hell… lugging it up the stairs is… unhhhhhhhh…”

“I’ll take it.” Sango jogged up past Kikyo and grabbed the suitcase, then started climbing two stairs at a time.

Kikyo tried to follow suit, but the damn thing really  _ was _ heavy.

“Here, let me help.” Kagura’s warm caramel eyes met Kikyo’s. “I’ll grab the wheels and we do this together?”

“Y—yeah,” Kikyo exhaled, “thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Kagura smiled a smile that lit up her whole face.

_ Shit _ . Kikyo liked Kagura.  _ Like _ liked Kagura. In that way that made her insides squirm and her thoughts all turn to Kagura’s ruby red lipstick and her impish smiles. To… to…  _ other things _ . And… given the way that Kagura looked at her, she was hopeful that the feeling was mutual.

The last flight of stairs became much easier with Kagura’s help, but by the time they’d made it, Miroku already had the door open to the roof.

“I leave you to it,” Miroku said as Kikyo and Kagura finally made it onto the gravel that coated the unfinished roof of the TV station. “Always a pleasure, Kagome, and nice to meet you all… especially you,  _ Sango _ .”

Miroku winked and disappeared down the stairwell. Sango’s returned look of disgust at Miroku made Kikyo smile. Miroku could have been Sango’s foil, but instead, somehow, he was the final hurdle for her to clear in order to accept the “law-adjacent” path that they were all now walking.

“Set up here?” Kagome pointed to the corner of the roof; it was out of the line of sight of the stairs and an antenna blocked them from some of the taller buildings’ windows.

“Sounds good!” Kagura bounded past Kikyo to the spot, lugging the suitcase with her.

In the time between leaving Sango’s house and sitting on the roof, the sun had retreated below the horizon, leaving the sky the dull purple that always came between sunset and nightfall. Channel 11 was broadcasting the evening news, and the four women got to work.

Kagura grabbed at Kagome’s messenger bag and pulled out a small device that looked like an ammeter with two long antennae sticking out: sort of like an old school cell phone. As Kikyo looked at it, she wondered: Could it do what they thought it could? It seemed so  _ small _ , so diminutive, and yet, if Kikyo’s theories had been right, and Kagura’s build faithful, they  _ would _ be able to detect and triangulate the source of the portal.

It was… exciting!   
But it depended on one thing…

“So, Kagome. We’re up here. Do we just… wait?” Kikyo asked.

If they had the wrong location, if their devices didn’t work, if whoever was opening portals turned tail, if it  _ was not real, _ they’d broken into and entered a building, and deposited highly dangerous equipment on the roof. It would mean, at the very least, a criminal record.

“That’s the plan,” Kagome answered. “But, I brought snacks and I brought cards!”

She rustled through her pack, first grabbing a deck of playing cards, then she pulled out four individual bags of carrots with hummus, and celery with peanut butter topped with raisins, as if she was the den mother of a Girl Scout troop. It was so entirely Kagome.

“Gin rummy?” Kagura suggested. “But… after I get the packs set up.”

Unsurprisingly, Kagura was all-in. Kikyo set to work in lugging the two machines out of their travel suitcases, then connected the batteries into the packs (carefully). The metallic cylinders, with their nylon straps that hung over each side, and the hoses that channeled the electric fields coming from the solenoids within, started to hum steadily. Given how many different ways they’d failed, how many ways they’d broken or collapsed or overheated or burned their wearers, it was amazing how smoothly they were operating now.

“We have about 8 hours before these things need a recharge,” Kagura said. “So… rummy time?”

“You can play,” Sango said, her eyes constantly scanning the roof, over the ledge, and toward the stairwell. “I’m happy just… keeping watch.”

_ Happy _ , Kikyo thought. And as she looked at Sango, she saw a little glimmer in her eyes. And Kikyo realized that here she was, sitting on the roof of a building that she’d broken into, playing cards with friends, and waiting on the off-chance that someone was going to use her theories to set demons loose on New York. Her, a physicist, who was not supposed to believe in the supernatural, was  _ happy _ .

“Gin!” Kagura slapped her cards down on the gravel. “Hey! Sango! Join us, we could play hearts.”

“Maybe next time,” Sango smiled, her eyes still scanning everything around her.

Kagura accepted Sango’s answer, and the card games continued. Kagura seemed to either be blessed with unnatural luck or unnatural skill. They laughed, and sometimes were able to drag Sango out of her sentry duty to share a joke or an anecdote (who knew Sango loved smoking meat?!). It was the weirdest place to have a card game, waiting for the most unlikely event to occur, while breaking the law in the most mundane way. If it came to it, Kikyo would be content to sit there all night playing cards and waiting for something that wouldn’t happen.

Then, everything changed.   
There was a beep.   
A beep that caused every woman to jump out of her skin and stare.   
The ammeter that Kagura had brought, had begun lighting up.

“Um. Has—has it ever done this before?” Kikyo probed, watching as the bars on the meter began to fill.

“N-n-no…” Kagura answered, her eyes as wide. “Holy fuck, is this happening?”

The moment that the hair on the back of Kikyo’s neck started to stand on end, she gave up the notion that whatever was happening was a malfunction. The moment that the reiki inside of her started swirling and pulling her toward the edge of the roof, Kikyo knew that not only had Kagura’s and Sango’s stories been real, but that they were in the right place to witness the next portal opening.

“Do you feel it too?” Kagome had stood up, grabbing Kikyo’s by her shoulders. 

“Yes.” Kikyo put her hand on Kagome’s, and both of them looked at the same point on the roof.

Whatever it was, it was calling to  _ both _ of their reiki.

“Kikyo, Kagome—suit up!” Kagura shouted, lugging the two humming ‘reiki blasters’ toward them. “Holy shit, this is real, isn’t it?

“S-something sure is real,” Kagome exhaled.

“Hell yeah!” Kagura squealed, and pulled a camera out of her pocket. It had a little mesh cage around it, which Kikyo recognized as a Faraday cage. “You two—get those things on your back. Whatever is happening is happening  _ fast. _ The field meter is… it’s still increasing!”

“What the hell does that mean?” Sango called, helping Kagome strap into her blaster.

“I have absolutely no idea,” Kagura answered. “Other than that the magnetic field is changing really really fast so, I think  _ shit is going down right now! _ ”

“This is the first measurement we’re getting of this, right?” Kikyo asked, then braced for the weight of the blaster as Sango strapped her in.

“Yes… so I don’t yet know what it means.” Kagura’s voice carried an edge of worry to it.

And something about the opposite corner of the roof felt like it was squeezing Kikyo, as if her reiki was suffocating from its presence. She didn’t want to go over to that corner. She didn’t want to try to understand what was happening, but she  _ had to _ . Kikyo looked over at Kagome: her eyebrows were knit even as her eyes were wide. And it looked like she was trying to swallow down bile or tears—Kikyo could not tell which.

“Together?” Kikyo asked, and held out her hand to her friend.

“Together,” Kagome confirmed, and took Kikyo’s hand.

They walked hand-in-hand to the place that was beckoning their reiki, and they waited. Every second that went by, Kikyo felt something change. Her reiki swirled and crashed against her skin as if it were preparing for battle, and her and Kagome’s hands were glowing pink.

As they watched the corner, a small white bead of light rose out of the gravel on the roof. Kikyo didn’t need to ask if this was the source of whatever was causing her reiki to go haywire, because she was having to actively suppress it from trying to slap at the bead, which was now luminous enough that Kikyo was forced to squint. The ball of light was actually a  _ ring _ , with a point of black in the center, expanding out as the rest of the electric white did. It looked like a solar eclipse, a shadow surrounded by a halo. The ring kept floating lazily upward.

“Are you having trouble controlling… too?” Kikyo breathed.

“Y-yeah,” Kagome answered back; they were still holding hands.

Whatever the portal was—and it  _ was a portal _ !—was leaving Kikyo with a queasiness she’d  _ never _ experienced before. It left tingles through her body, and caused her reiki to flare out of her and try to attack the ring, which was now far above their heads.

“Guys, you may want to get your hands on the blaster. I think whatever nightmare is planning on coming out of the other side of that thing is  _ on its way _ ,” Kagura commanded, and Kikyo could hear the worry in her voice.

Kikyo looked back at Kagura’s wide caramel eyes, recognizing for the first time something she’d never seen before:  _ fear _ . As much as she was excited, Kagura was also  _ frightened _ .

“We’ve got your back Kagura!” Kikyo called, and as soon as she said it, her reiki focused around her, coiling like a snake ready to strike on her command.

It was real, all of it! The theories and the devices and the address and the  _ portals _ . Everything Kikyo kept doubting was there, in front of her, climbing higher into the sky as it got bigger. The ring itself looked like trapped lightning, and was brightening by the second; the lightless black it surrounded was becoming darker.

Then, at the bottom of the electrified ring, something appeared.

“You see it too, right?” Sango shrieked; a scaled lavender hand with three long fingers tipped with black claws was holding the blinding edge of the ring.

“We’re all seeing it,” Kagome answered, and finally she let Kikyo’s hand go. “You ready to… catch ourselves a demon?”

“Y-yes…” Kikyo agreed, and put her hand on the trigger. “Time to be demon hunters.”

Kikyo’s heart pumped out of her chest, and her reiki gurgled just below the surface, ready to explode the second that she commanded it to. But she was focused; all she could see in that moment was the purple clawed hand that was grasping at the air between the black hole and their world. Then soon, another hand emerged from the hole. The creature’s movements were becoming less frenetic, as if it was starting to get its bearings on the other side.

Then the hands were joined by long knobby ivory horns, which curved gently inward, as if a great purple ibex was climbing out of the portal. Then Kikyo saw the demon’s eyes, which were blood red and glowed against the blackness that the creature was climbing out of. It wasn’t the way they glowed against the dark that sent a chill through Kikyo’s body; it was the malice that she read in them. Her reiki crashed around her protectively, as the creature’s head popped completely out, sitting atop a scaled neck with a gleaming white mane. The demon then smiled, baring teeth the same color of its horns, sharp and shark-like: meant to cut, meant to tear, meant to destroy.

“Holy shit,” Kagome whispered next to her, and for the first time, Kikyo felt a gentle brush of Kagome’s reiki against hers.  _ Both _ of them knew the demon in front of them was something to fear.

With a great Godzilla roar, the beast lunged out of the black hole, revealing an enormous muscled torso lined with the same shimmering lavender scales that were on his head, and bowed legs. The demon landed on the roof with a loud crunch, then slowly began advancing on the two women, its predatory grin growing wider. Kikyo hit the button on her reiki blaster without thinking, sending a jet of fluorescent pink light toward the demon. She caught one of its legs, which caused it to howl, stumbling backward at the sting that Kikyo’s reiki had caused it. But that was clearly the word: Kikyo’s reiki blast  _ stung _ the demon…

_ I need to inject more reiki _ , Kikyo realized, then saw a magenta stream from Kagome’s reiki blaster slash at the demon’s torso. It did a bit more damage than Kikyo’s jet, leaving a smoking black marr across the demon’s scaly skin.

“Hey!” Sango’s cry diverted Kikyo and Kagome’s attention, and they saw their friend streak toward the stairwell.

“ _ Watch the demon! Eyes on the demon! _ ” Kagura screamed, but by the time they’d turned their attention back to the portal (and the giant Lucifer-looking demon), it was gone. “Fuck,  _ it jumped! _ ”

Kikyo took off with Kagome toward where the demon was last standing, ignoring the weight of the blaster on her back, ignoring the throbbing adrenaline that was rushing through her, ignoring the rivers of reiki that were streaming from both her and Kagome.

When they reached the edge of the roof, they didn’t need to ask themselves where the demon had gone; the screams of people and the blaring of car alarms told them what they needed to know. The demon was smashing cars as it lumbered down the street, sending people scattering in all directions. But as Kikyo squinted, she realized that although most had escaped, at least one or two people were not so lucky.  _ The fucking demon with the predatory teeth and the eyes full of rage was hurting people. _

“What do we do?” Kagome screeched.

“U-uh…” Kagura stuttered, staring over the edge of the roof.

“Aim down,” Kikyo said, breathing as deeply as she could. “But only when you’re sure that  _ everything _ inside of you is pooled and ready to go. Because I only think we are going to have one shot.”

Kikyo looked down, and realized that the demon was closing in on a man with a limp, who was running as fast as he could; its stalking posture told Kikyo that the demon was  _ playing with him _ , as if it had found the weakest of the herd and was delighting in the hunt.

“Take my hand,” Kagome said. “I… I’d feel better if we were connected.”

“Good thing you’re left-handed,” Kikyo giggled, and took Kagome’s right hand in her left.

Then with a few more breaths, Kikyo meditated, feeling the power that was crashing into her in torrents build in her trigger hand, getting stronger, and becoming nearly unbearable to contain.

“Ready?” Kikyo uttered, the only words she thought she could say as she aimed the nozzle at the prowling purple demon.

“Ready,” Kagome said.

And both women pointed as well as they could and pressed their triggers, injecting every last bit of reiki they possessed into the electric current that blasted out of the solenoids. The resultant geyser of their reiki intertwined together, a brilliant lighting bolt of magenta and light pink, honing in on the demon; missiles of protective energy set to destroy the destroyer. The moment reiki stream made contact with it, the demon  _ exploded _ , throwing lavender, silver, and red-spattered body parts across 2nd Ave.

“Sh—shit,” Kikyo whispered.

“Shit…” Kagome agreed.

Never in their tests had their reiki lit up the sky like that. Never when they’d played their games had they watched it  _ home in on the danger _ . And  _ never _ had it appeared to combine forces and eliminate a threat.

“ _ Fuck yeah! Look at what we did! _ ” Kagura danced around the two. “Eat that you fucking  _ demon _ ! Teach you to fuck with New York.”

Before either knew it, Kagura had launched herself between them, throwing an arm around each one. Then, completely unexpectedly, Kagura planted a wet juicy kiss on Kikyo’s cheek, before turning to Kagome, a bright grin on her face.

“Want one too?” Kagura asked.

“Gross, NO!” Kagome said. “Who knows where your lips have been?!”

Somehow, Kagome’s exasperation at the threat of Kagura’s kiss was what finally broke the trance, and the women fell onto the roof in uncontrollable fits of laughter. They’d stopped a demon. _ They’d stopped a demon _ .

“I got the whole thing on video. My Faraday mesh worked perfectly! Even when that giant monster came through and blasted the electronics!” Kagura squealed. “We got it and we killed it and now it’s dead and  _ we have video _ !”

Kikyo whooped, followed by Kagome, then by Kagura.

They’d broken into a building and set up camp on the roof, then confronted a demon and  _ won _ . Demons were real! And Kikyo’s theories were  _ real _ ! It was… it was amazing!

“Uh… guys?” Sango’s voice broke them out of their celebration; her eyes were wide and she was holding something bulky and metallic. “We have a problem.”

“What happened?” Kagome narrowed her eyes, and all looked at the device Sango had raised aloft.

“First, that thing killed people,” Sango enunciated, “and second… we were seen.”

“By  _ who _ ?” Kikyo asked.

“I  _ think… _ ” Sango answered, hoisting the machine up, “by the people who opened the portal… and  _ made this. _ ” 


	10. In Over My Head

_What have I done?_  
They were the only words that played in Inuyasha’s mind, and the only ones that he could even allow to play in his mind. Because when he smelled the metallic blood and listened to the screams of innocent people, he knew that it was his fault.

The baby, the dead-eyed girl, and even the faceless man had all been novelties: proof that his machines were working and the portals had reached across dimensions to his _home_. Each time, Onigumo told him everything was fine, that the demons on the other side were just random happenstance. But _that demon_ , whomever he was, was out to murder. And, from the looks of it, had succeeded. For _that demon_ , Inuyasha had caught Onigumo _grinning_. It was a smile that Inuyasha would never forget.

Every day and every moment with Onigumo made Inuyasha more on edge, more terrified, more doubtful. At that fucking school, they’d almost been _caught_. But even there, the portal had closed back up before the _thing_ that was in there finished climbing out. And they’d managed to run before the police officer had found them. Inuyasha wanted to lay low, to wait until it was safe again to continue, but Onigumo had pushed, had reminded him of _why_ they were opening the portals in the way that they were: so that a portal would be stable enough to open and close at will. But that didn’t change the fact that—that _things_ were trying to make their way out.

“It’s completely normal, Inuyasha,” Onigumo had reassured, “those were probably from the borderlands looking for a way to leave. We’re just getting unlucky.”

But it was time to admit that Inuyasha didn’t believe that. The _things_ that were crawling out were _never_ like the world he remembered. Demons considered the use of resources in their world to be sacred. Demons built their homes by slowly and deliberately bending the growth of trees to their will. They killed for food only after saying a prayer and promising to return that sustenance back into the earth through good deeds and service. Because demons ultimately understood that they were tied to the earth.

Inuyasha’s mother had told him about how different the human and demon worlds were: mortality was a human world concept, and led to much less care for natural things. It was something Inuyasha had not understood until he was on the other side, seeing how frivolous humans’ use of resources was. And for a while, he hadn’t given two shits about the people on the human side, seeing them waste all the things their world had given them.

But watching bodies writhing on the ground, watching the man with the limp destroy his own body in an attempt to get away from the _thing_ that Inuyasha had brought into the human world—his _mother’s_ world—settled heavily into his soul.

Before today, getting home felt like it was worth everything.  
Not anymore.

The bits and pieces of the demon were still splattered across 2nd Ave, along with the blood of injured humans. As much as Inuyasha knew he should run away from the scene, he couldn’t. He needed to stay, to witness, to hope that the humans on that street were going to be okay. And the concealment charm was probably enough to keep the woman who saw him, and chased him, from recognizing him.

He’d gone up to the roof to investigate the commotion he heard up there. He’d planned to just peek out, then sneak back down to the boiler room. But he couldn’t look away. Not when he saw _her_ : the woman from the book cover. Not when the delicate aroma of cherry blossoms and vanilla infused and imprinted itself on his soul, as if something about it was _familiar_.

What had she been doing there?  
 _How_ had she known to be there?  
Where did she get the reiki power from?  
And why did he want to get to know her so desperately after a single glance and a single whiff?

“Hey!”  
Inuyasha’s momentary distraction had been interrupted by another woman, a brunette he didn’t recognize, who launched after him with such speed and athleticism that she’d nearly caught him. He’d had to clear the entire stairwell in a single jump just to have enough time to scream at Onigumo to run. And even then, they’d had to abandon the still-humming machine.

All because the woman on the book cover had come to life and paralyzed him.

Outside, he could only watch as the two women on the roof grabbed their machines and shot a jet of blinding pink reiki at the rampaging demon, blowing it to bits before it could kill anyone else. Without _them_ , the demon that Inuyasha invited into that fucking world would still be free, and still be killing.

 _What have I done?  
_ Inuyasha had added the silicon insulators to the machine, created a dampening layer to reduce vibration, and added a jump gap so that when he injected his yōki into the device, it could not counter-blast him. And the fucking thing, for the _first time_ , hummed like a goddamned dream. It was _stable_.

But it released a demon intent on killing.  
And Inuyasha was terrified to go back and try to collect it. The damn woman who chased him almost _certainly_ got there first. And… he could make another one. If…  
But he was not sure that he wanted to. Not if the next thing that crawled out of the portal was going to be like the last thing. Or… maybe any of the things.  
But he really wanted to get home too.

 _Did you get out? Text me as soon as you get this_.  
Inuyasha scowled at the number that appeared on the screen. Of-fucking- _course_ Onigumo would be texting him minutes after they both released a demon into New York City, almost got caught, and got saved by the women from the book they were using in the first place.

 _I’m fine._  
Inuyasha almost typed out “ _maybe we should stop_ ,” but thought better of it. Stalling rather than confronting Onigumo was the best option.

 _Good. Meet me at the regular place in an hour.  
_ Inuyasha growled at Onigumo’s text.

He wanted a fucking _break_ to just… _think_. He didn’t want to experiment; he didn’t want to be around the man who poisoned his soul. But he didn’t know how to break away from Onigumo, because if he tried, Onigumo would get more demanding, more insistent, more _frightening_.

 _Fine. See you in an hour.  
_ Inuyasha replied, then slammed his phone shut and took off for their “regular place”.

Everything was so fucked. He’d _succeeded_ in making the device that could send him home! And he’d _succeeded_ in keeping the portal open long enough to make it through. And he’d _succeeded_ in evading the people who nearly caught him. But he had not felt so alone since the day the portal grabbed him and deposited him on the human side.

 _Wait._  
A memory nagged at him, unbidden. _Cherry blossoms and vanilla_. The first scent of the human world. The same scent as the woman on the roof. One of the women with reiki powerful enough to destroy a demon.

Could it be that one of them was _also there_ the day he came to New York? It seemed impossible, but… his mind would not let the possibility go. He _needed_ to understand. He _needed_ to get closer. He _needed_ to investigate Kagome Higurashi and Kikyo Sekimuro, not just because the aroma of cherry blossoms and vanilla were calling him, but also because _maybe_ they could help him understand how he got there, and help him truly get home. _Without_ some murderous fucking demon jumping through the goddamned portal first.

But first he needed to get through the meeting with _fucking_ Onigumo. And he only had an hour to figure out what to do, what to _say_ , to start getting away from the dead-eyed man who haunted him, and to maybe— _maybe_ figure out a new way—a _different_ way—of finding the portal home.

“Reconnaissance,” Inuyasha whispered to himself. “That’s how I’ll do it.”

He would tell Onigumo that he needed to ‘keep an eye on things,’ for now, to ‘wait for the heat to die down.’ Yeah. That should buy him some time. Time, he hoped, he could use to get closer to Kikyo and Kagome. And if Onigumo demanded to know what he planned on doing, he’d just tell him that he was going to keep an eye out. That his disguise made it perfect, because even if they’d seen him, his charm would protect him. _That Onigumo shouldn’t join him_. Because, Onigumo had likely been seen, but more, because Inuyasha did not want Onigumo anywhere near the woman who smelled like cherry blossoms and vanilla.

Inuyasha sighed, taking as much time as he could walking to the 24-hour diner that the two met in. He’d thought about doubling back to the boiler room where they’d set up the device, but that was futile. The brunette probably had already found it, and… without it, Inuyasha could stall. He would need to construct a new device, which would take time. And with that time, maybe he could figure out how to get away from Onigumo once and for all.

Inuyasha pushed the images of writhing bodies out of his head, and concentrated again on _home_. On the woven wood of the family’s house, still wholly a part of the tree they decided to settle under. He remembered the fragrance and vibrance of the wildflower garden that edged their property, and the way that the paths between the Inu land and the other lands wove effortlessly through wisteria-planted trails. Demon lands were the epitome of the harmony between beings and nature. Inuyasha had heard of the “borderlands” but had never ventured there himself. The great demons kept their borders safe, and so all Inuyasha had ever known was the serenity of his home. The smiles of his father. The scoffs of his half-brother. And the melancholic love of his mother.

 _You said you would give everything up to go home_ , Inuyasha reminded himself. But that was not true anymore. He would give everything _of himself_ up, but he was not sure that he would sacrifice _others_. And somehow, it had taken him until _that day_ to really understand, and commit to, the difference.

 _Where are you?_  
Onigumo’s text caused Inuyasha to bare his (concealed) fangs.

 _1 block away  
_ Inuyasha replied, and picked up his pace.

His mother’s smile. His father’s laugh. Sesshomaru’s scowl. _Cherry blossoms and vanilla_. Inuyasha breathed and let the memories relax him as he braced for the next meeting. He didn’t want to talk to Onigumo, but he had to.

“You’re late,” the slimy voice of his ‘friend’ whispered to his half-demon ears when he arrived. Inuyasha turned and joined the sunken-eyed man at the corner table they usually sat at.

“I had a lot on my fucking mind,” Inuyasha snarled, throwing himself into the booth.

“There is a lot to talk about!” Onigumo replied, and a manic spark came into his black eyes. “There is no time to waste! We’re almost there!”

“ _Bullshit_.” Inuyasha deepened his snarl. “That _thing_ was killing people, Onigumo… And you’re sitting here pretending like everything is fucking sunshine and daisies?”

“I’ve _told you,_ Inuyasha.” Onigumo rolled his eyes, but when he glared back into Inuyasha’s, his expression was a warning. “We can’t yet control _where_ the portal opens on the other side. We just got… _unlucky_ this time with what tried to come through.”

Onigumo’s words had never sounded so rehearsed. Almost like, every location Onigumo had given him… _someone_ in the demon world knew about too. Did… did Inuyasha dare?

“Why is it that you _always tell me_ where we’re gonna open these things and _boom_ , surprise, there is always something on the other side tryin’ to get out?” Inuyasha finally demanded; he was done tiptoeing around it.

“You’ve _not been paying attention_ ,” Onigumo whispered, lower and more ominous than before. “We open them where we open them because it takes a _lot_ of power to open something stable enough to let you through without swallowing you up in the wrong place, _demon_.”

Onigumo’s face turned darker, which caused Inuyasha to shrink smaller into the booth.

“...Something that we haven’t _opened yet_ ,” Onigumo continued. “Something we’ve been _building up to._ ”

Inuyasha had a suspicion that Onigumo had been keeping this from him, waiting for the right moment. He felt _handled_ , and he felt disgusted that he was letting it happen.

“You better fucking tell me what we’re _building up to then,_ Onigumo.” Inuyasha’s snarl became a grow., “Because if there are things waiting on _the other side_ , I want to be… _more prepared._ ”

“I _don’t know_ what is on the other side, _demon_.” Onigumo’s voice was truly dangerous now. “I’m _human_. There is no way for me to _know_ what is beyond the other side.”

Onigumo was right, but somehow Inuyasha still sensed he was lying. Inuyasha also knew it was time to drop it, because whatever secret Onigumo was guarding, it was big enough that he was coiled to lash out if Inuyasha kept pushing.

“Well… it’s gonna take a while to build a new one,” Inuyasha murmured. “So if we are _building up to something_ , it’s gonna take a while.”

“I would suggest that you _hurry_ ,” Onigumo answered, his voice lighter, but still serious. “Because they’re onto us.”

The hair on the back of Inuyasha’s neck stood up at the mention of the women. Of-fucking- _course_ the women were onto them, but he didn’t like hearing Onigumo say it, because it meant that Onigumo had _noticed_ the women. And Inuyasha was not going to let Onigumo anywhere _near_ Kagome Higurashi and Kikyo Sekimuro.

“Keh,” Inuyasha scoffed; he had to broach this carefully. “I look different enough under this thing that they’re not gonna know it’s me. I can watch ‘em.” If he could say the next thing _just so_ , he could pull it off. “Might make sense if you laid low, though. Because it’s real likely one of them has seen you.” When Onigumo nodded, Inuyasha inwardly relaxed. ”I’ll start pickin’ up the new things that we need to build a new device.”

“You _sure_?” Onigumo raised an eyebrow. “You’re a _demon_ after all, and you saw what they do to _demons…_ ”

The vision of glaring pink light and exploding sinew crossed his mind again. The two women on the cover of _Demons Among Us!_ had obliterated a demon.

Inuyasha’s stomach dropped.

What if they found out that _he_ was a demon too? Would they do the same to him? Would the woman who smelled like cherry blossoms and vanilla end his life the way they ended the demon who crawled out of the portal?

“I’m not gonna go around New York killing innocent people,” Inuyasha growled—answering his own inner doubts out loud,.“I’ll be fine.”

Kagome Higurashi and Kikyo Sekimuro had enough power to explode _that_ human-killing monster into bits. But _he_ was the one who _let_ the human-killing monster into New York City in the first place. And maybe that meant that Inuyasha would have to someday answer for his actions, maybe at the hands of two women who could surely kill him.

But, for some reason, the idea of being at the mercy of the women on the cover of _Demons Among Us!_ didn’t scare him. Because one of them smelled like cherry blossoms and vanilla.


	11. You Miss 100% of the Shots You Don’t Take

“Don’t make me sue you!” Kikyo shouted, polishing off her third glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Her eyes got unfocused when she was tipsy. “50% is way way too fair given how you went behind my back and published!”

Kagome laughed nearly as raucously as Kikyo in that moment, because… now that they had gotten their _second_ checks from Amazon, the checks that came after half of New York had witnessed some sort of demon event or seen it on the news? Well, the royalties were now a bit _bigger_ than before.

“So just buying your drinks tonight doesn’t count?” Kagome teased.

“$1200 is a lot different than $2000, Kagome,” Kikyo retorted, an edge of irritation to her voice.

“I am taking the piss,” Kagome finally said, rubbing Kikyo’s shoulder with her hand. “I already contacted Amazon for the split to be 50/50.”

Kikyo focused her eyes at Kagome, for just a second, and then a bright smile broke from her face.

Kikyo pulled Kagome in for an enormous hug. “ _Thank you._ ”

“For what?” Kagome choked; Kikyo _did not do physical affection_.

“For… _everything,_ ” Kikyo slurred.

Kagome thought she knew what Kikyo meant. _Everything_ meant a group of friends. _Everything_ meant rekindling their love and belief in demons. _Everything_ even meant publishing a book behind her back that had shot up the Amazon bestseller list.

“It was… my _pleasure_ ,” Kagome answered, squeezing Kikyo just a bit closer.

“Shit. I need to claim this on my taxes now,” Kikyo continued, tapping her fingernail on the wine glass, which was responding with pleasant pings.

Four days ago, the ‘demon hunters’ had taken New York by storm. But no one knew who they were, because the portal had temporarily disabled all electronic devices in the vicinity of the event. All that was left were injured people (thank _GOD_ no one had died), blasted demon bits splattered across 2nd Ave, and a ton of eye witnesses saying that a stream of pink light came from the roof of one of the buildings.

Miroku, for whatever reason, had stayed around (probably to try to get Sango’s phone number; he failed), and managed to clear an escape route. The demon hunters got away unscathed, and undiscovered, with all their equipment (and a little bit _extra_ ) intact. It was… a _miracle_.

Whoever it was that was making the portals had made an extraordinary machine. Kagura and Kikyo were already reverse engineering it, finding that it was clear that the builder knew what they were doing. It was, as Kagura often muttered, “fucking evil genius.” Kagome learned quickly it was better not to ask questions when Kikyo and Kagura got going, which was _often_. And it usually led to a hasty retreat for Sango and Kagome, up to Sango’s living room, where it was ‘safe.’

A month of time really could change the course of one’s life.

Who would have predicted that Kagome’s writing a rogue book would be that catalyst for her? Giving her friends capable of filling the lonely void in her soul? Kagura breathed life into them all with her goofiness and humor. Sango still acted like the group’s den mother, providing snacks (and stern talking-tos when the experiments got out of control), and best of all, Kagome got Kikyo back. The two truly were friends again. Their reiki had _destroyed a demon_! They’d actually _saved New York_! Too bad no one could know about that.

Well, even though people didn’t know that Kagome Higurashi and Kikyo Sekimuro were the reiki twins, people _were_ buying their book. And doing it enough that… Kagome could finally afford to go out when she wanted to (and maybe even get the new laptop she’d been eyeing!), and buy the _equipment_ that Kagura needed to improve the blasters and zappy zappers and _now_ portal creators (though they were pretty sure that they were not going to use that one), and possibly even… _demon traps_ (if Kagura was to be believed).

A ding from Kikyo’s phone broke the women from their hug. At the wide smile that came to Kikyo’s face, Kagome had a strong suspicion she knew who the text was from.

“I… gotta go,” Kikyo said, a pink blush painting the bridge of her nose.

“Tell Kagura not to light anything on fire,” Kagome giggled, taking a sip of her still nearly full cider.

“You sure you don’t want her to join us?” Kikyo asked, but her eyes were looking beyond Kagome.

“I don’t want to be the third wheel,” Kagome teased, which served to deepen Kikyo’s blush. “Get going; the least I can do is use my ill-gotten book money to pay for your wine.”

“I still expect a check for the difference, _Kagome_ ,” Kikyo accused, but the sternness that used to comprise her most frequent expression had utterly softened.

“I’ll get it to you tomorrow, I _promise_ ,” Kagome replied. “Now, don’t keep Kagura waiting. But _don’t do any experiments tonight_.” Kikyo stuttered enough that Kagome started laughing (she hadn’t meant for it to be a double-entendre, which made it more hilarious). “On _demon machines,_ Kikyo. I… don’t want to hear about any of the others.”

“Shut up.” Kikyo rolled her eyes, though neither missed her smile.

Kikyo grabbed her purse, and headed out of the bar. Kagome looked down at her cider, trying to decide if she should leave it be and head out too, but… even now when she was richer, she still couldn’t leave a drink un-drunk, _especially_ one that she was enjoying.

“Wh—what are you drinkin’?” A deep and gravelly voice startled Kagome into looking up.

While she was staring at her cider, someone had taken Kikyo’s seat. And not just any old someone. He was tall, and had thick long black hair that shone like obsidian, which he was wearing down. He looked at her with purplish gray eyes, lined with lush black lashes. His face held a boyish charm and his lips were full, but somehow his eyes seemed too deep and sad to belong to his youthful, handsome face. Kagome then let her eyes slide down the man’s body. He wore a red button-down shirt and his neck was adorned with a saturated blue opal whose nebulae of color nearly seemed _alive_. But… it wasn’t his shirt or even his necklace that captured Kagome’s notice. It was the muscles that were fighting the restraints of the fabric. Even though the shirt fit him well, Kagome could make out the peaks and valleys of sinew that comprised the man’s chest and arms, as if he were an Olympian carved by a Renaissance sculptor.

In sum, he was one of the most attractive men Kagome had ever seen.

“Cider,” Kagome answered, a smile lighting her face. She was definitely _interested_ in talking to this man. “Care to join me?”

“Y—yeah, sure,” the man replied, a pink hue coming across the bridge of his nose.

Holy shit, was the world’s hottest man blushing about talking to her? It had been a while since Kagome had met someone she’d… _vibed with_. A long while. A _long long_ while. And the man before her, with his lush hair and sexy voice and marble-cut muscles was reminding her _just how long_.

“I’m Kagome,” Kagome said, extending her hand.

“Y—Yash.” The man, _Yash_ , replied, taking and shaking her hand.

“Yash… I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone with that name.” Kagome quirked her eyebrow.

“It’s… an old family name,” Yash said, mostly into his beer.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you _Yash_ ,” Kagome said, trying not to pay attention to the way his triceps flexed as he ran his finger around the rim of his beer glass. She liked the way his name sounded on her tongue.

“You too,” Yash replied, chancing a glance back up at Kagome.

If Yash was attempting to flirt, he was doing a poor job of it. But… he was also succeeding, because it was making Kagome want to see what happened if she broke through the shy boy exterior that he was so masterfully displaying.

“So, what is it you do, Yash?” Kagome asked, taking a sip of her cider.

“Contractor, under the table,” Yash replied, gifting her with another glance from those addictively soulful eyes of his; there was a spark in them now. “What about you?”

“Writer, mostly,” Kagome replied. She wasn’t exactly sure how to answer that question. Because honestly? She wrote for a rag paper, and her book was called _Demons Among Us!_ Yes, it was writing, but honestly? She felt more a demon hunter than a writer at the moment.

“Sounds like there’s more story to that,” Yash chuckled. “C—can I buy you another one of those?”

Kagome looked down to see that she’d chugged a lot more of her cider than she realized. It was leaving her feeling a bit giddy, bubbly, _uninhibited_. She considered his offer, considered the possibilities for _the rest of the night_ , and considered what one more cider might do to her.

“How about this… you can buy me a half-pint,” Kagome said; yes, she could drink just a bit more. “And I’ll buy _you_ something too.”

“I—I thought that the guy was supposed to do all the buying,” Yash retorted, rubbing the back of his head, a sheepish smile on his face.

“This isn’t the Victorian age,” Kagome winked. “It’s been a good day. I’m in a celebrating mood. So, what do you say, Yash?”

“I suppose,” Yash said, a faint smile dusting his lips. “But only if you tell me what we’re celebrating.”

Kagome laughed and summoned the bartender, to put another pint of the IPA Yash was drinking on her tab, and a half-pint of her cider onto his tab.

“Friend and I published a book,” Kagome said as the two waited for their beverages.

“Oh yeah? What was it about?” Yash’s purple-gray eyes lit up as he asked.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Kagome said, finishing off the last of her first pint of cider just as the new half-pint arrived.

“Try me., Yash smirked, pawing at his new beer without breaking eye contact with Kagome, as if he was trying to read her thoughts.

“It’s about demons,” Kagome admitted, taking a swig of the cider in front of her. She really _really_ wanted the evening to continue, and… well… finding out the girl you were flirting with had written a book titled _Demons Among Us!_ certainly had the potential to end the night abruptly.

“No shit,” Yash chuckled, his bright smile grew brighter. “So you must’ve heard about all those weird things happening, huh?”

“You could say that,” Kagome sighed. “It certainly did make for a sales boost for our book.”

“I—Can you tell me the name of your book?” Yash asked, his eyes looking at his beer.

“You promise not to judge a book by its cover?” Kagome teased, pleased that she was not too tipsy for a good play on words.

“If you promise the same thing,” Yash answered, a single eyebrow raised. But when Inuyasha’s eyes looked into hers, there was some deep and intense longing to them. It was… _mesmerizing_.

“I _never_ judge a book by its cover,” Kagome huffed. “And… it’s called _Demons Among Us!_ ”

“Catchy title,” Yash said. “So… do _you_ think there are demons among us?”

“No, I just made up the entire premise to make a quick buck,” Kagome joked, diverting away from the real answer.

Because she _knew_ that demons existed because she’d seen and destroyed one herself. But even as Yash’s eyes were wide with interest, she… really didn’t want to scare him off. Not with her reiki, not with her other job, and not with her demon-hunting.

“Keh, I don’t buy it.” Yash leaned in, getting close enough that Kagome could smell him, like fresh rain after a storm. “And, you can tell me. I’m not gonna run away.”

Kagome scrutinized Yash’s eyes, the way that she did with nearly every interview she did. He was hiding something, but as was often the case of men and women in bars, Kagome figured that was probably— _hopefully?_ —because he was trying to figure out how to take her home.

“Well…” Kagome pondered. Maybe there _was_ something she could tell Yash: something that she sometimes thought about, the thing that got her _interested_ in demon hunting and honing her reiki in the first place. “About ten years ago, I was walking near Central Park and… I—I _felt something_. Almost like… a _jolt_. Then there was this flash of light…” Kagome pictured it—the way the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, the way that there was a lightning strike without a thunderstorm—“I _swore_ that I saw someone just _appear_ out of nowhere. A man. He had silver hair.” Kagome didn’t look at Yash as she spoke (or she would have seen the look of shock that came over his face). “Anyway. I don’t know if I saw a demon that day or not, but… I still think about it. About him. It—it was what led me to write a book about it.”

Something about that moment stuck so firmly in Kagome’s mind that she could replay it as if it were a movie. She had seen the way the man’s hair swayed, reflecting little glints of city light as he ran away. Kagome remembered being frozen there, wondering who he was, trying to understand why she yearned to chase after him. She remembered wondering if he was as afraid as she was in that moment. And she wondered why… after that day, she became obsessed with demons.

Suddenly, she felt calloused fingers stroking between her knuckles.

“I believe you,” Yash whispered, letting his hand rest over hers, his voice laden with some unknowable emotion.

Kagome shuddered from the sensation of Yash’s hand touching hers, as if their auras were starting to reach out and touch each other through the contact. It caught Kagome off guard. Sure, she _had_ been thinking about how nice it would be to end her dry spell with a guy as hot as Yash, but… this felt _good_ and felt different from all the others. Almost _too much_ from such a simple touch.

“You just want to get in my pants,” Kagome teased, then she leaned a little closer to the wide-eyed blushing man. “Not… that I’d mind.”

 _Shit._ Well, alcohol _did_ always make her forward. But dammit, this guy was touching her and sending tingles surging across her skin. His shy charm served to make him more appealing, and he seemed totally accepting of her strange obsession with demons. And… she wasn’t sure she could turn away from the gravity of attraction and _je ne sais quois_ she had for him, even if she tried.

“I—I—“ Yash continued to stutter, but his hand never left Kagome’s, and his fingers never stopped stroking the back of her hand. “Well… I _do_ believe you. The other stuff is… uh.”

“So you _don’t_ want to get in my pants?” Kagome challenged. She was a tad worried she was reading things wrong. Was this guy about to throw some weird Zoroastrian religious bullshit at her about demons? She… she didn’t _think_ she had a wrong read on things. She knew from experience that connections that deep and electric did not happen everyday, but… what if?

“N—no, it’s not that—wait. I do. No, I mean… yes. But no.” Yash seemed to be having trouble forming coherent sentences, but even as he whinged, his hand never left Kagome’s.

Kagome wanted him so badly. Wanted to find out what would happen to her body when it was entwined with his, instead of only the single point of contact. And she needed to know _now_ what the connection meant.

So, Kagome forced the issue.

“You… wanna get out of here?” Kagome interrupted Yash’s stutter.

At least if he said no, she’d given it a shot.

“ _Yes._ ”


	12. Firsts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to the amazing [kalcia](https://kalcia.tumblr.com/) for inspiring the first... "event" 😅 that Inuyasha undergoes in this chapter!

Inuyasha had never been kissed. Never _kissed_ anyone before. Now here he was, with the only person whose scent had imprinted itself on his soul. The woman from the book cover. The woman… the woman who was _there_ the day that he landed in New York.

Kagome Higurashi. The _only_ woman Inuyasha would ever think about. Possibly the only woman he would ever want to be with.

Kagome’s lips tasted like the sour cider that she’d been drinking that night. Her body was soft and giving to his touch, and she smelled so overpoweringly of cherry blossoms and vanilla that Inuyasha drowned in it.

“This is me,” Kagome giggled, relinquishing his lips and unlocking the door to her apartment. “Want to… _come in_?”

“Y—yes,” Inuyasha breathed, letting himself be pulled into the apartment of the woman who seemed constructed out of every one of his fantasies.

He just wanted to keep kissing and tasting and touching Kagome, _for as long as he possibly could_.

But, there was a problem.  
He was a half-demon. Who was pretending that he was a human. Who was looking for his way to get home. To another world. Away from Kagome.

But Kagome’s lips silenced Inuyasha’s thoughts. And her hands roving his body froze his worries. Because all that mattered was kissing Kagome. Touching Kagome. Feeling Kagome’s hands on his skin.

When Kagome tugged on his shirt, summoning him farther and farther into her homey little apartment, toward the _bedroom_ , he didn’t resist. And when she pressed her body against his, he didn’t resist then either. Because he couldn’t— _no._ Because _he didn’t want to_.

“Kagome.” God Inuyasha loved the way her name sounded on his tongue. Almost as much as he loved that the moment the words passed through his lips, Kagome’s mouth was on his yet again.

“Yash,” Kagome giggled between frantic kisses, “you _know_ … you can undress me.” She then deliberately grabbed Inuyasha’s hand and stuffed it up under her black shirt, and on top of her bra. “Unless… I was—um. Am I being too forward?” 

“N—no. No, Kagome.” Inuyasha had been fumbling over his words all night. This was not an exception. “I _definitely_ want to. I just… I don’t wanna— _uh—_ do anything _you_ wouldn’t want to do.”

Kagome turned her glittering chocolate eyes incredulously at him; did she know that with his demon eyes, he could see all the colors of the rainbow flecked in them?

“You can drop the act.” Kagome pushed back and away from Inuyasha so that she could study him. He tried to look confused, but inside he was terrified. _How did she know_?! He’d worked on the charm around his neck for over a _year_ to get it exactly right. The blue opal masked his yōki such that it was not detectable to any but someone powerful who was actively looking for it.

“Wh—what do you mean?” Inuyasha wasn’t going to panic. He _wasn’t going to panic_.

“You already have me in bed,” Kagome said, her eyes still X-raying Inuyasha. “I’m planning on sleeping with you, so the cute shy boy thing is sort of getting old.”

Relief flooded through him, followed by inexplicable excitement. He’d… he’d _pictured_ being with the woman on the book cover. Hell, in the dark of the night, he’d touched himself thinking about her. Now, _Kagome Higurashi_ was in front of him, willing and enthusiastic. She _wanted_ him to know that she wanted him.

“Sorry,” Inuyasha murmured. “It’s been—a long time.”

He wasn’t going to tell her that by ‘long time’, he really meant ‘I’ve never done this before and you’re the only person I would ever want to do this with.’ He wasn’t going to admit ‘I didn’t fantasize about anyone until I saw you on a fucking book cover’, or that ‘your scent has been imprinted in my nose since the day I fell through a crack in the sky into New York City.’

Kagome let out a self-conscious little chuckle, then looked up and down Inuyasha’s body.

“How… how is that _possible?_ ” She let her eyes linger on Inuyasha’s chest.

“Just… is,” Inuyasha dodged, trying not to look as embarrassed as he was feeling. “So uh… you should let me know what feels good. For _you_.”

It had taken all of Inuyasha’s courage to say those words. He’d only expected to spy on the girls at the bar that night, but when Kagome sat there, sipping her cider, a private little smile on her face, he couldn’t resist. He really _really_ hadn’t planned to sit down next to Kagome and start talking— _flirting_ , but it had happened, and she’d told him the most important thing of _anyone_ in his 10 years in New York. And her inviting him to her place? Her _kissing him_? Her very obviously and directly asking him to sleep with her? It was a goddamned fantasy come to life.

And it was a goddamned game-changer.

But right now, with her eyes like chocolate opals and her skin silken and wanting, he needed to force himself not to think about what it all meant. Right now, all Inuyasha needed to do was lean in.

So he did, reclaiming Kagome’s lips and pulling her shirt up and over her body. Kagome’s hands enthusiastically reciprocated, and before Inuyasha knew it, he was bare-chested, staring back at Kagome’s pale fuschia bra, watching as her rapid breath caused her breasts to swell and recede against the fabric. As Inuyasha looked at her, thought about pressing his face into the crease between her breasts and just breathing, he became keenly aware of just how… _tight_ … his jeans had become. Just how… _shallow_ his own breathing was. Just how much of his thoughts and visions had narrowed to only thoughts and visions of _her_.

“Someone looks excited,” Kagome grinned, then she unbuttoned her jeans and slid them off her body.

A wave of scent lapped at Inuyasha’s nose at Kagome’s newly revealed flesh: intermingled now with the cherry blossoms and vanilla was something headier, deeper, _more sensual_ , like the spicy citrus of a ginger root, but somehow personalized, _for him, and only him._

Inuyasha didn’t think: he just reacted, grasping the small of Kagome’s back and crushing her to him. He licked her lips, then turned his attention to the soft skin just under her ear, flicking his tongue to get a taste of her—as sweet and addictive as he imagined she would be. Kagome moaned at his attention, so he licked again, this time adding a but more pressure.

He was paying so much attention to the way Kagome’s breathing changed, and the way that his lips and hands were causing her to make barely audible whimpers, that it wasn’t until his own jeans were around his ankles that he realized that she’d made short work of his clothes too.

“Ohhh.” Kagome pressed her hand delicately into Inuyasha’s chest; when he finally came enough to his senses to see her face, she was… smiling impishly, and she was… looking _down_. “Well… I’m… _damn_.”

Inuyasha looked down too, realizing that his boxers were making quite the tent of things. And that Kagome, his dream woman come to life, _liked what she saw_. Liked thinking about what he was going to do to her—what they were going to do together.

Kagome backed herself up until she was sitting at the edge of her bed. She crossed her legs, and waited. Inuyasha scrambled to join her, then nearly tripped and fell.

Right. Pants around his ankles. Shoes still on.

Inuyasha made quick work of those, and ambled after Kagome onto the bed. As soon as he was close enough, she wrapped her arms around him and continued kissing him, scooching them both up toward the head of the bed until he was laying on top of her, pressing her into her mattress.

 _Fuck,_ it felt good to have her under him. To have her skin touching his skin. Inuyasha wondered how it might feel if he dragged his fangs against the tender flesh of her neck. Except that he couldn’t use his fangs right then. Because Kagome didn’t know he _had_ fangs.

“Yash…” Kagome whispered. “You can touch me.” Then she peppered kisses along Inuyasha’s jaw. “Please… touch me.”

“W—where?” Inuyasha really needed to work on stuttering when he talked to her. And needed to shake all the rest of the thoughts out of his head that didn’t involve Kagome.

“I… I can’t figure out if you are the world’s most clueless hunk or an alien in a human suit,” Kagome chuckled, then she torqued her body so that she and Inuyasha exchanged places: her on top, and him on the bottom. “Touch me everywhere, Yash. If your hand wanders somewhere I don’t want you to go, I’ll let you know.”

[ ](https://dreaming-of-soup.tumblr.com/post/643016629370896384/mmmmm-human-inu-and-kags-anyone-you-are-gonna)

Artwork commission by [dreaming-of-soup](https://dreaming-of-soup.tumblr.com)

* * *

The perfect woman with the perfect scent had just given Inuyasha carte blanche to touch her. So, he let his hands wander down her arms, detecting the goosebumps that appeared as they traveled further down, to the small of her back, then finally, he let his hand squeeze the round and giving flesh of her ass. Kagome draped her body over his, pressing her breasts into his chest, and continued kissing Inuyasha’s neck, adding in little nips here and there that were driving him crazy. When she took a knot of his hair and pulled it, he let out a guttural moan.

He wanted to claim Kagome. It was… a _first_ for him.  
Like so many of the other things that were currently happening.

And as he kissed and she moaned his ‘name,’ as he touched her ass and ran his unclawed fingers over her skin, it was almost like Inuyasha was only watching as ‘Yash’ was with the girl of his dreams. It made him want to be with Kagome fully, as Inuyasha. But… he couldn’t stop himself. Didn’t _want_ to stop himself.

Kagome pushed herself up on her arms then scooted herself down his body, then, as she slid his boxers off of him, Inuyasha whined. He was close to combusting, from her smell and her light touches and _her_ alone. But, if she…

Kagome didn’t give him a choice. Before he could react, she wrapped a single hand around his cock. The explosion of color and electricity behind his eyes at her press against his already at-capacity erection told him that, well… he wasn’t going to last long.

“You’re… _impressive,_ ” Kagome giggled as she touched, and all Inuyasha could do was slam his eyes shut and try to picture the scowl on his older brother’s face to avoid coming undone. 

Suddenly, the touch stopped. When he opened his eyes, he saw Kagome looking at him, before nodding to herself. It was only a brief moment of respite, just enough time to compose himself, for Kagome to reach up behind her own back and remove her bra, which slid off of her chest. Her breasts were heavy peaks of unblemished skin, crested with dusky nipples: friendly flowers with light pink petals surrounding a blushing bud, like a _cherry blossom_. Almost as if they were the manifestation of that part of Kagome’s intoxicating smell.

“Touch me,” Kagome breathed, “While I touch you.”

Inuyasha should have found the right words to say ‘no, I touch you first then you can touch me.’ or possibly ‘I’m about ready to burst already Kagome, so if you want the fun to continue it’s not a good idea to distract me with your beautiful bosom.’

Unfortunately, he didn’t say any of those things. He nodded, and raised his hands to grab Kagome’s cherry blossom-crested breasts, all while she ran her delicate fingers up and down the length of him. Feeling the way his hands molded over them, hearing the way that Kagome would moan when he ran his thumbs over her nipples was… well it was divine. But it was overpowering.

The moment Kagome’s hand started pumping his length, up and down, up and down, he was all instinct. He rocked his hips in harmony to her touch, and let the scent of her envelop him, bringing him higher, higher, higher until…

“Kagome!” Inuyasha groaned her name so deeply that he vibrated, all the while watching as ropes of his cum splattered onto his stomach.

The sight that greeted him as he came down was...well, it was _not_ how he would have hoped his first time being with a woman—this _particular_ woman—would look like.

“Oh.” Kagome’s eyes were wide, and she’d folded her arms protectively over her breasts. All she did was stare, and even as Inuyasha was not particularly good at reading people, he had no trouble deciphering Kagome’s emotion: _disappointment_.

Inuyasha rocketed off the bed, finding that Kagome’s bathroom was blessedly right outside her bedroom door. He grabbed toilet paper and wiped off his shame, then turned on the water to splash it down his stomach and run on his face.

“Fuck.” Inuyasha could hear the defeat in his own voice. “Fuck _Fuck_ **Fuck** Fuck **_Fuck_** _._ ”

He’d blown it. With the first woman who’d _ever_ captured his attention. He was a moth to her flame, and… as happens with moths, got burned. He could hear Kagome through the wall, breathing rapidly. He wondered what she thought of him, what she thought of the night that held so many broken promises. All because of him. All because seeing her and touching her was too much. All because…

Because everything was fucked. He was fucking _disguised,_ having his first true intimacy with a woman who could probably wipe out his existence if she wanted to. A woman who, if she found out not just what he _was_ , but what he’d _done_ , would… would _never want to see him again_. Yet, he couldn’t leave. He couldn’t give up because something inside of him kept saying that he was _meant to be there_ and that he was _meant to meet Kagome_. Maybe even…

Maybe even…  
That his journey through the portal was not on accident at all.  
Demons, _Inu demons especially_ , did not desire just anyone.  
They desired exactly _one_.  
They knew that _one_ from scent,;they knew that _one_ from instinct.  
And they would be inextricably drawn to that _one_ , the one who was their mate.

As soon as the thoughts slipped out of his subconscious, he _knew_. _Kagome Higurashi was his mate_. And that changed everything.

His embarrassment didn’t matter.  
His disguise didn’t matter.  
His desperation to get home didn’t matter.  
Being with Kagome was the _only thing_ that mattered.  
So he would figure all the rest out.

Inuyasha flushed the toilet and plodded back into the bedroom, trying not to show how relieved he was to find Kagome still here on the bed, still in her underwear, looking to be deep in thought. He could nearly see the deep pink glow of her reiki, flowing under the surface of her beguiling body. At the sound of his feet, her eyes connected with his, and his (disguised) demon ears heard her heart skip a beat.

He had no fucking clue what he was doing, but he didn’t care. Because he would figure it out. _Shit_ , he figured out how to be a half-demon in New York. He figured out how to make a fucking _hole_ to another world. He could… he could figure out what made the only woman he’d ever care about feel good.

“That was not… well, not the way I wanted to start something fucking good with someone like you,” Inuyasha said plainly. “But, I want you. And, if you’ll let me, I want to continue where we left off.”

At Inuyasha’s words, Kagome’s body relaxed, and her heartbeat slowed, just a bit. It was enough to tell Inuyasha all he needed to know, that he was _wanted_ and _welcomed_. So he proceeded forward, to Kagome.

Inuyasha crawled back onto the bed, coming to a stop so that his nose nearly touched Kagome’s, so that he could feel her exhalations and swim in her scents. “Let me please you.”

“Yash, you don’t—” Kagome started, but Inuyasha pressed his finger to her lips, and he let the joy of his revelation light his face.

“I _want to_ ,” Inuyasha whispered, words only for her, and he brushed his nose against hers and kissed her.

Sure, his nerves were still on high alert, and he probably would throw up once he got home, but right now, he was in the place he most wanted to be in the world— _either of them_. He felt her smile into his kisses, retort dying on her tongue, which he was now curling his own around, and he let his hands find purchase back on Kagome’s skin, no longer holding back.

His premature orgasm had had _one_ good consequence: it cleared his head. It reminded him what was important. And it let him concentrate on what mattered: trying to bring Kagome to the same blissful peak that she pushed him off so effectively.

When Inuyasha’s hands trailed down Kagome’s taut stomach, feeling her muscles contract as he went, he stopped at the edge of her pale fuschia panties, which were perfectly matched to her (absent) bra. Inuyasha hooked his thumbs into their loops, opening his eyes to silently ask Kagome for permission. When Kagome giggled and nodded her head, Inuyasha dropped them off of her body.

Before he continued his advance, Inuyasha took a moment to appreciate Kagome’s newly revealed skin. Silky curls decorated the juncture of her thighs, curtaining the most erotic parts of her. Inuyasha’s eyesight, though, was not the most activated at that moment. Because as soon as Kagome’s sex was exposed to the air, the spicy scent of the ginger meant only for him saturated his nostrils. He had to swallow down the instinctual rumbles that wanted to break from him— _not yet_.

“C—can I touch you?” Inuyasha tried to swallow down the stutter. True, something in his mind had shifted in those moments cleaning himself off in the bathroom, but, that didn’t make this any less his _first time_.

“Yeah,” Kagome purred, “Let me… show you where.”

Kagome perched herself up on her knees, then took Inuyasha’s hands in hers, guiding them deliberately between her legs. He didn’t move a muscle, didn’t utter a word, and didn’t take his eyes off of Kagome’s prismatic brown ones; he just waited. Soon, his hands were between her legs, testing the slick of her arousal.

“Feel that?” Kagome whispered, placing Inuyasha’s hand on the petal-soft pearl at the mouth of her sex. “Touch me there. Gently.” Inuyasha did what he was told, using his index and middle finger to stroke the slippery little outcrop of flesh. Kagome moaned appreciatively. Then she took Inuyasha’s other hand, and lifted up, laying it to rest on her erect nipple. “And, touch me here too.”

That was all Inuyasha needed: encouragement from the woman he knew to be his mate. He listened to Kagome’s uneven breaths, to the rapidity of her heartbeat, and to her moans—both the ones that she knew she was uttering as well as the little internal ones he only heard because of his demon ears. She felt _so good_ , so he tried to vary his ministrations, but always gently. When he found that rubbing her with his thumb and letting his fingers explore deeper into Kagome’s sex brought out the rawest and most guttural of her moans, Inuyasha smiled. He—he wanted to _taste_ her. To run his tongue across her skin and taste the salt of her sweat. To suck her cherry blossom nipples. To lap at the source of her ginger scent.

“I—I want to _taste you_ ,” Inuyasha rumbled, verbalizing, at least in part, what he wanted next.

“Mnnnh. Yash.” Kagome was bucking her hips against his hand as she tried to answer. “M—my nipples. P—please.”

Without hesitation, Inuyasha leaned his head down between Kagome’s breasts, gifting her breastplate with a decadent stroke of his tongue, tasting her sweat just like he’d wanted to. He then looked from the left to right, trying to decide which he wanted to taste more. He leaned in and took the blushing and pebbled flesh into his mouth, letting his tongue circle the center, before flicking it. It too tasted of her sweat, but somehow also sweet, earthy, _addictive_.

“F—fuck…” Kagome’s moans were getting louder, so much so that Inuyasha couldn’t help but grin against her breast, “Y—you’re a quick study.”

“Keh,” Inuyasha chuckled, releasing Kagome’s left nipple and taking her right into his mouth in turn.

He would do whatever it took to make Kagome feel good. He would listen to every whimper that crossed her lips. He would mark every stuttered breath, every twitch of a muscle, every labored exhalation. Already, he was learning. Kagome liked boisterous licks to her breasts, and fluid but rapid strokes of his thumb to her clit. He… he still wanted to push his fingers inside her, because as he edged ever closer to the mouth of her sex, her moans became deeper, less controlled.

“C—can I…” Inuyasha finished his request not with words, but with the gentlest of prods, letting her know where he wanted his fingers next to travel.

“Fuck _yes,_ ” Kagome whispered, and Inuyasha did, letting his middle and ring fingers find their way past Kagome’s lips and into the wetted opening that made _him_ moan at its feel.

Inuyasha wiggled his fingers, relishing in the slippery feel of her, rumbling at her little whimpers at his invasion. Then he felt Kagome’s hands trail down his torso, and soon, he felt her hand was between _his legs_ , combing the hair that crowned _his_ groin.

“Damn,” Kagome gasped, her hand back around his cock. “You… you’re—“ She looked down at Inuyasha revitalized erection. It hadn’t taken him long to… _rebound_.

“Can ya blame me?” Inuyasha laughed—the way that Kagome stared at his dick, as if it was a prize, was not doing him any favors in the ‘you are my mate and I will do anything to be with you’ department.

“Do you want to…” Kagome had not taken her eyes off of Inuyasha’s _excitement_ , “...fuck?”

“Yes.” Inuyasha said the words before he thought about what Kagome was asking.

He wanted to take his time learning every curve and cranny of Kagome’s body. He wanted to discover every touch and kiss and lick that could make her whimper, moan, and cry. He wanted to taste her arousal from its source and lick the little pink button of flesh that his thumb had so masterfully coaxed into giving her bliss. He wanted to hear her every fantasy and every wish and make them come true.

He also wanted to fuck her.

Kagome didn’t give him much time to try to compose the rest of his thoughts. She pushed him down onto the bed, and toppled on top of him, straddling him. She recaptured his mouth with hers, kissing him aggressively enough that he moaned again, until she leaned away, her brows suddenly knitted.

“Wait here,” Kagome whispered, putting a single finger against Inuyasha’s freed mouth. She then shimmied off of him. “I… almost forgot.” Kagome opened the drawer of her bedside table and pulled out a square of foil, which she ripped open—a condom. “Gotta be safe.”

Inuyasha laughed. At her forwardness, at her experience, at this absurd night where the woman he was both chasing and hiding from turned out to be his mate; the woman, he believed, he’d _landed in the human world to meet_. And now, here he was, in her apartment, lying on her bed, waiting for her to become the first (and likely _only_ ) woman he would ever have sex with.

As she rolled the latex down over his already-throbbing cock, Inuyasha whimpered. He wanted this _so bad_. And it was happening. But… could he look at himself in the mirror tomorrow? Knowing that he fucked Kagome tonight under a disguise, all without telling her that _he_ was the person she was hunting?

Before he could think on it, Kagome’s body filled up his field of vision; her glimmering eyes and enchanting smile holding him hostage.

“Are you ready?” Kagome said, and she lowered herself just enough that he could feel the tip of his dick pressing against the mouth of her sex.

“I—I’m ready,” Inuyasha asserted, and let Kagome lower herself the rest of the way onto him.

But he wasn’t ready. Not for the sensation of her surrounding him with her warmth. Not for the way his hands felt holding her hips as she bounced up and down over him, bringing herself pleasure from being joined with _him_. Not for the way she immediately started rolling her hips, grinding so vigorously against his reawakened cock that he was already feeling the build-up that so recently had him undone.

Kagome closed her eyes, and adjusted herself as she rocked, until finally, she let out a moan. She kept at that angle, moving faster, as if she were searching for just the right cadence and just the right pressure.

“Y—Yash,” Kagome mewled his disguised name. It was all he could do to hold in his own second orgasm as he watched her movements get wilder, as he listened to her heartbeat quicken, as he heard the moans she was holding in. Then he remembered how much pleasure she got when he touched the button of flesh atop her groin. So he moved his hand from Kagome’s hip to her slick clit, rubbing his thumb in congress with her bucks, listening as she grew louder and louder.

And when she began to tighten around him, Inuyasha knew that soon, he would get to see his mate come undone. So he let her keep her pace, matching her movements thrust-for-thrust, waiting and holding in the roar that his own body was demanding.

She would get her pleasure first.

“F—faster Yash, I—I—I’m almost…”  
Inuyasha did not need to be told twice. He quickened the motions of his own hips, pressing into the soft and giving tissue along her intimate walls that seemed to be where Kagome had focused all her attentions. Her utterings went from words to simple syllables, to only animalistic sounds as she grunted. Then suddenly, with a tightening of her walls around him, Kagome howled.

“Yash!”  
She cried his name, and he let himself follow her over the edge, howling ‘Kagome’ as he spilled his seed into the condom.

“Thank you,” she whispered, then collapsed onto his chest, nuzzling her nose into his neck.

Inuyasha wrapped his arms around her, and inhaled her scent: cherry blossoms, vanilla, and ginger, with a new edge from the intermingled scents of their coupling.

Kagome Higurashi was Inuyasha’s mate.  
And instead of coming clean about _what_ he was, or _where_ he was from, he’d made love to her under a disguise.

 _Fuck_.


	13. The Fifth Portal

She shouldn’t have cared.

One week ago, Kagome met a very hot man at a bar. Kagome had convinced said very hot man to come home with her. And that same very hot man had fucked her well enough that all the dry spell cobwebs were good and shaken out.

It was normal to catch feelings for a guy like that. Yash was bar-none the most attractive man that Kagome had ever slept with. And although the feeling that he was hiding something never completely went away, the earnest way that he touched her and kissed her and just _looked_ at her bounced around in her mind, a never-ending loop of distraction and fantasy.

Yash had even asked for her number before he made to leave. Kagome had given it to him. The real one. And when she said goodbye, it was with the hope of seeing Yash again, rather than a thank you salute to the man who’d given her a great dicking then disappeared into the night to never be seen again (like most of the rest had).

But, that was a week ago. A long, long, _long_ week.

Yash never called her, never texted her, just… ghosted. And for some reason, something felt extremely _wrong_ about that. Like her soul was trying to tell her that something special had happened, that _Yash_ was destined to be someone special in her life.

She couldn’t convince herself that he had banged her, then ditched her, because she couldn’t shake the sense that she would see him again.

“You’re distracted again.” Kikyo’s soft voice interrupted Kagome’s dark mood. “Stop looking at your phone every thirty seconds.”

“I’m fine,” Kagome growled. She was _tired_ of hearing it.

And it wasn’t like she was looking at her phone all the time, just… a lot of it.

“Here I was showing you a fucking _demon trap_ and you’re all ‘tap tap tap’ and ‘pout pout pout’,” Kagura snarled. “A _demon trap_ , Kagome! You’re so distracted right now that Sango is a better audience.”

“Hey!” Sango called from the edge of the room, where she was peeling an apple with a knife. “Remember house rules?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah… If we are going to use your basement, we have to stop making fun of you,” Kagura parroted. “I _know_. But tell me how much you care about this stuff?”

“I mean, I care. Demon traps to trap demons, which are real. And the new blaster packs can store reiki, which is real,” Sango grumbled. “But can it take the hair I found from the crime scene and tell me who set a demon loose? No.”

“I don’t think you’re gonna need hair to find these guys,” Kikyo frowned. “They have been making portal devices and lighting up the skies of New York now for months.” All the women looked in the corner, where Kagura’s adapted device sat. “They’re not done yet.”

“It’s been what—three weeks?—since the last one. Maybe they stopped?” Kagome offered. Though she too thought that it was wishful thinking.

But it had been a quiet three weeks.  
Well, a quiet two, plus one week.  
(Kagome really needed to stop thinking about Yash.)

“Did we really set them back _that much_ through the cunning use of ‘taking their device’?” Kagura mused. “I mean, I won’t say that thing isn’t complex, but… I’d think they would have a replacement up and off the ground already, at least, if they were me…”

“Not everyone is you, Gu,” Kikyo giggled.

If Kagome wasn’t so preoccupied with feeling sorry for herself, she would have doubled over laughing at the fact that Kikyo was not only using cutesy nicknames, but was _giggling_. Kikyo didn’t giggle. Well, until Kikyo met Kagura, that was. Or, apparently, _Gu_.

“It’s pretty smart. And something about it has been _bothering me_ ,” Kagura mused. “Its injector is the reverse of ours, as if it is taking in some other sort of energy.” Kagura grabbed the little metal cone that had come off the device. “It was tuned for yōki, not reiki.” As she pressed her finger into the tip, she turned her eyes toward Kagome. “Do you think that it means the person who’s making these things is… _demonic_?”

It wasn’t something Kagome had considered strongly before. Demons were the mindless beasts that kept crawling through the portal. The idea that there was a _demon_ running around New York, making portals and bringing newer and uglier demons into the human world, sent shivers down Kagome’s spine. But… perhaps not all demons were mindless.

_The man with the silver hair._

She thought about him a lot. About the descriptions both Kagura and Sango had given of him. And… of that night in the park, with the flash of silver. And how Yash had put his hand on hers and said, “I believe you.”

Kagome really needed to stop thinking about Yash.

 _61st and 5th. Bring the Demon Hunters. HURRY  
_ Kagome’s phone pinged from an unknown number.

“What?” Kagome looked down at the text. “Shit.”  
  
“You okay?” The question was from Sango.

“61st and 5th. Summoning the Hunters. Says to hurry.” Kagome held up her phone for the others to investigate.

“Ohhhh.” Kagura looked entirely too excited about a random text coming from a random number.

“What if this is a trap?” Sango narrowed her eyes—ever the voice of reason.

“We walk straight into it,” Kagome answered. “And does it matter? The last time one of those things opened, something came out and tried to kill people.”

“I… I guess it doesn’t,” Sango sighed. “I just… I don’t like feeling like we’re going in unprepared.”

“I’m not sure whoever it was has any _idea_ what happened the past three weeks.” Kikyo strapped the reiki pack on her back. “We’ve _upgraded_ everything to the point it doesn’t even _compare_ to last time.”

“Dude, we figured out how to store reiki! It’s not just our two witches gettin’ suited up to zap some things; it’s _all of us,_ ” Kagura declared, throwing the reiki pack on her back; she then leaned down and grabbed the rectangular metallic contraption at her feet—the demon trap. “And if there’s a demon, I wanna catch it.”

“You _sure_ that thing is gonna work?” Kikyo called as all of the women followed Kagura out to her van.

“Nothing like beta testing in the field!” Kagura called back, throwing the pack and the trap into the trunk. “So, 61st and 5th, you say?”

“Yeah…” Kagome said, staring down at the unknown New York number on her phone.

“God, that close to the park, _really_?” Kagura scowled. “Ey Sango. Can you get us any of that sweet sweet police-can-park-anywhere energy?”

“No,” Sango growled back. “So _stop asking_.”

“Looks like we could park at the Pierre,” Kagome offered. “It’s literally on the intersection.”

“How about we get there, and then we make decisions about parking?” Sango suggested. “Kagome—you said you didn’t recognize the number?”

“No.” Kagome kept daydreaming that maybe Yash had found her book, and had read it. And saw something weird by magical chance and had texted her to save the day.

She really needed to stop thinking about Yash.

“How long until we get there?” Kikyo asked.

“Depends on if I break any laws…” Kagura murmured. “20 minutes… But Sango, uh, don’t look at my speedometer.”

“Nothing on the web yet.” Kagome spoke as she furiously searched everything she could find for “weird black hole new york” “demon new york.” (Google searches, she noted, were now turning up more and more legitimate news sites…)

“So, seriously. What if this is a trap?” Sango was uneasily fumbling a long leather sheath strapped to her side: a _holster_.

“You brought a gun?” Kagome pointed at where Sango was touching.

“And my badge,” Sango answered. “I’m _nowhere near_ as ‘oooh let’s charge the Alamo’ because Kagome got a random text from a random number.” She then unsnapped the snap over her holster. “I am prepared. In case this _is_ a trap.”

Sango’s hand on her gun was the first time Kagome really truly considered what she was doing, what she might be _walking into_. Could… could someone have really wanted to hurt them? Could the silver-haired man _really_ have found her number and texted her as a lure?

Why was Kagome’s mind so certain that this was _not_ the case?

“It’s a good thing we have you,” Kagome finally said, placing a hand on Sango’s shoulder. “And… I really _really_ hope that you don’t have to use that.”

“So do I,” Sango answered gravely, then turned to look out the window as the concrete whizzed by under the wheels of Kagura’s van.

No one paid attention to the speedometer and Kagura’s request. And no one discussed the way they were jostled and jolted from sharp swerves, or the screeching of brakes, or even the enthusiastic honking of horns that accompanied their ride.

“Kagome, do you think we’re gonna see stuff?” Kikyo turned her head from the front seat as Kagura cursed the red light to experience several unpleasant sexual acts.

“I don’t know,” Kagome answered honestly. “But for some reason, I think we will.”

Finally, blessedly, the van came to a stop.

“Well— _shit_ , this never happens!” Kagura exclaimed. “Dude just pulled out of a metered spot. I can park. Uh… don’t comment on my parallel parking skills.”

No one paid attention to the scraping sounds or the loud swear words that Kagura exclaimed either.

As soon as the van was parked, the women piled out the door, their reiki blasters strapped to their backs. It was late afternoon, and it was overcast, so Kagome reckoned it would not be that difficult to find the glowy white ring with the black hole inside.

“Which…” Kagome looked from building to building.

“Grab my hand.” Kikyo walked up next to her. “You remember that weird feeling we got when the last one opened?...” Kagome let her hand slide into Kikyo’s. “I’d bet we’re going to feel that again.”

“That… yeah.” Kagome looked gratefully over to her friend.

The two of them let their reiki connect, and Kagome simply… observed. She concentrated on the feeling of unease, and began to focus in on it. She could feel Kikyo turn too, in exactly the same direction as she did. There was something faint, but distinctive, starting to materialize. As if it were the bud of an electric flower emerging and getting ready to bloom. When Kagome opened her eyes, she was facing the Pierre.

“Something’s in there,” Kagome whispered, and she and Kikyo advanced on the hotel.

Sango jogged to join both the women, then as they pushed open the door, walking into the ornate lobby. Kagome scanned again with her reiki. Whatever it was triggering her was coming from the far left corner of the building, from behind the door marked “Employees Only.” Kagome nodded in its direction and the women started walking purposefully toward it.

“I’ll join you in a minute,” Sango whispered, then pulled out her badge. “I promised I wouldn’t do this, but… if you two both have pricks to your spidey sense, I… don’t want to be stuck sweet talking some obnoxious security guard to get access to where we need to go.” Sango nodded back at Kagura as well.

“We really are a terrible influence on her,” Kagura whispered, but even she was far more subdued than she had been. “You—you really feel something?”

Kagome didn’t know how to describe it. Like the last portal, every step closer she came to the source of the spike made her both want to keep advancing and to run away. But, something else was tickling at her reiki, something comforting. Something familiar. It was much fainter than the first, but it grounded her against the tumultuous energy of the second.

Kagome pushed through the Employees Only door, focusing all her concentration on finding the source of energy that was lashing at her. She was either getting closer, or it was growing, or _both_.

“It’s below us,” Kikyo whispered, “But how do we get there?”

“There!” Kagura pointed to a set of double doors and a sign with the words “Stairs” prominently displayed.

“Should we wait for Sango?” Kagome asked as they stopped directly in front of the doorway, opening it, and looking at the utilitarian concrete stairs.

“Wait for me to what?” Sango’s voice echoed through the stairwell, surprising them all. “By the way, we’re clear. The front desk person was a little daft and a lot a flirt, and seems to think that we’re ghost hunters of some sort. So I… just went with it.”

If the sense of foreboding was not pressing on Kagome’s chest, she would’ve giggled.

Kagome reconnected her reiki with Kikyo’s, and they both reached out at the same time, trying to locate exactly how far below them the source was, which had further increased in intensity.

“All the way to the bottom, I reckon,” Kikyo said, and Kagome confirmed, so they descended the three stories into the sub-basement of the Pierre.

“I’m going to take a wild guess that they will be in the boiler room?” Sango groaned as they opened the double doors into the unfinished hallway in the bottom of the hotel.

“Well, wherever they are, they are off to the left,” Kikyo whispered, and they all started hurrying their pace.

Something about the energy was changing, _morphing_.

“Did you feel that too?” Kikyo asked, and when Kagome nodded, she continued. “I am going to take a guess that we felt the machine warm up, and just now, the thing is starting to… activate.”

“Ooooo, awesome!” Kagura’s energy had come back. “Time to test this baby out then!” Without slowing their pace, Kagura turned the three toggles on the demon trap on, and it started to make a pleasant humming noise. “You should probably do the same… lock and load, ladies...”

All four of them turned the toggles on their reiki blasters, listening to each reverse cyclotron engine begin to purr. Something about the energy Kagome and Kikyo were sensing changed coincident to ignition of the machines. Some third flavor of energy had joined the first two.

“Wait. What the hell is…” Kagome looked at Kikyo, who shared the same puzzled look she did. Because, whatever that energy was, it seemed to be moving. Toward them. Quickly.

It was nearly overwhelming, the feel of it. So much more intense than the purple scaled demon that massacred a New York street before Kagome and Kikyo blew it up. But, the flavor of the thing was the same.

“Yōki,” Kikyo cried. “Coming at us really really fast. **_Get back!_** ”

Kikyo grabbed at Kagura, forcing the trap out of her hand. And Kikyo had done it just in time. Because not moments later, a white ring materialized directly over the contraption, surrounding both boundless blackness and… a demon.

Their hair was long and black, held in a high ponytail, and their eyes were nearly indigo. Their skin was sickly pale, and they had blood red lips and pointed ears. They sat in the middle of the blackness as if they were floating in a bubble, and wore a bright and colorful outfit that looked out of a Kurosawa movie or a feudal anime; strung to their back was a katana with a hilt that included a glowing red jewel. Upon seeing the women, the being— _demon?_ —opened their mouth into a wide and menacing grin. 

This person might have seemed innocuous to any passers by, but the energy about them was so dark and menacing that Kagome felt like their aura was going to make her throw up.

“Time to bag a demon ladies!” Kagura called, and both she and Sango had already wrapped their fingers around the triggers of their reiki blasters, and were pointing them at the ringed demon, unaffected by its yōki.

Kagome let a little whip of her own reiki out and laced her fingers around the trigger of her own blaster, swatting the demon’s aura away. She could fight this thing, she _would_ fight this thing! When she looked at Kikyo, she recognized that they shared the same grimace. Then she felt Kikyo’s reiki connect with hers. They were _both_ going to take this thing out. And they were going to do it right now.

“Okay! All we need to do is use the reiki in our blasters to rope this dude and guide them gently into the trap. You all ready?” Kagura instructed, but before she could say anymore, the thing opened its mouth and began to speak.

“ _Sapere aude_ …” The creature began to shout in a language that Kagome didn’t understand, though it sounded… _Italian_?

“God this thing sounds like he’s summoning the dead!” Kagura shouted over the demon’s utterings. “Now, on the count of three, let’s rope him!”

“... _Alea iacta est_ …”

“One… two…”

“ _Naraku venit…_ ”

“Three!”

All four of them activated their blasters together as the trap opened, creating four ropes of pink and magenta light to lasso the demon’s bubble, which they all began guiding down toward the trap. For an instant, the demon looked utterly bemused, then it bared its fangs and it began lashing at the ropes, which were getting harder and harder to control.

“... _te perdere mundi!.._ ”

“It’s fighting us…” Kikyo scowled. “Let’s see if it can take some extra juice!”

Then a wild grin came over her face, and the stream coming from her blaster turned brighter, laced now with the deep magenta of her own reiki. Kagome nodded and grinned, then followed suit, channeling her reiki into the stream, letting it intermingle with the reiki from the blaster, and strengthening the rope that was now binding the demon.

“... _iam via aperta est!..”_

They were so close; the demon’s bubble was actually touching the mouth of the trap now, and it was no longer able to resist.

They were going to catch the demon!

Then suddenly, a blastwave of energy smacked into Kagome and Kikyo so hard that they were thrown backward and onto the floor just as a blinding white light assailed them all. Causing their vision to go blurry.

When they all regained their bearings, they looked to the point where they’d _almost_ caught the demon, to see that both it and the trap had been incinerated.

“Well, fuck,” Kagura huffed, and they all stared completely dumbfounded at the smoking hulk of their almost success.

What none of them knew was that the silver-haired man watched from the boiler room, and listened to the Latin that the demon was speaking. And knew, _finally_ , just how much danger both the demon world and the human world were in.


	14. Veritas

_Those who would dare to know the truth in this moment should know that their day of reckoning is upon them. The die is cast—Naraku comes for your judgment day! He will destroy the world—your world—as he destroyed his own. The way is open now. He will come!_

The words of the demon were the end of the fog. Inuyasha now understood: why the things that crawled out of the portal all seemed to be hell-bent on destroying, why Onigumo had been so cagey about the portals. He understood, totally, _finally_ , how used he had been.

And how fucked he was.  
Because all he wanted was to be with Kagome, and everything in front of him made that seem impossible.

When Inuyasha lay there, bathing in the afterglow of their coupling, he got the text.

 _You don’t have to worry about making all the devices anymore!  
_With Onigumo’s message came an attachment. An image. Of the reverse cyclotron that had taken Inuyasha _so fucking long_ to develop. At first, he hoped that maybe Onigumo was just sending him a picture of one of his old devices, for reference. But the wiring was different (sloppier) and the craftsmanship was worse, and Inuyasha realized that Onigumo had made the device himself.

 _Meet me at the workshop. It needs a couple tweaks, but I think it’s ready to go!_  
Onigumo’s second text was the only thing in the world that would have been able to pry ‘Yash’ away from Kagome.

He barely remembered pulling himself out of her bed, or asking for her number (thank _fuck_ he had done that). All he remembered was needing to get to Onigumo as fast as he could, to figure out what the hell to do. He figured he’d call Kagome when he sorted it out, maybe ( _hopefully_ ) when he’d determined that the device was a bust and he could let Onigumo simply twist in the wind.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a bust.

“I figured something else out too,” Onigumo had said, his sinkhole eyes glimmering. “These devices don’t need yōki to work successfully. They can use _reiki_ too…” When the wicked grin crossed his face, Inuyasha’s stomach had turned to ice. “Talk about a good use to put those _bitches_ to.”

Inuyasha had done everything he could to stall, to try to _think_ his way out of the danger Kagome was now in. He claimed that it was too dangerous (only for a _demon_ , Onigumo reminded him), and finally, he just volunteered, because ‘it would work better with his yōki’ (and would keep Kagome safe just a little bit longer). The moment he followed Onigumo like a fucking dog to the next location, remembering the last demon ransacking 2nd Ave, he knew he had to do something. Time had run out.

 _61st and 5th. Bring the Demon Hunters. HURRY  
_Inuyasha typed an urgent message out to the only number he’d ever saved to his favorites and memorized: Kagome’s.

Because if the demon that came out of the portal was half as violent as the last one, he needed the Demon Hunters. And he knew that, no matter what Onigumo was up to, he would _protect_ Kagome. He would protect them all.

But the second that demon started talking about the second fucking coming, as the women roped the babbling madman and were about to trap him, the device apparently ‘overloaded.’ Providing just enough cover for the two of them to flee.

That was what Onigumo claimed anyway.

And that was the last straw.

When they’d made it back to the workshop, Inuyasha had grabbed Onigumo by his slimy shoulder. “What the fuck is a _Naraku_?”

“He—he was speaking _nonsense_! Just… trying to get out of those bitches’ trap!” Onigumo shrieked. “And—you want to get _home right_? This is the only way…”

The idea of “getting home” with Onigumo’s help tasted like ash in Inuyasha’s mouth. He finally had a clear picture of everything. Or moreso, a _lack_ of clarity about everything.

“What have you been hiding from me?” Inuyasha had never been so tempted to plunge his claws into someone’s throat before.

From the look on Onigumo’s face, Inuyasha _knew_. The world ending, the demons, the placement of the portals, _Naraku_. It was all planned; it was all expected. The only person kept in the dark about it was _Inuyasha_ ; he was merely a pawn in the fucking game.

He shoved Onigumo as hard as he could, sending the diminutive man crashing into the opposing wall, then slumping and sputtering on the floor. But Inuyasha wasn’t done yet. He walked back up to him, and grabbed him one more time by the shirt, forcing Onigumo’s eyes to meet his.

“What do you know.” Inuyasha enunciated every syllable. He stayed as calm as he could, but his blood was running hot and every instinct was telling him to end the man in front of him. The one who played him like a fiddle. The one who _threatened Kagome_.

“N—nothing! Honest! It’s all just… _coincidence_!” Onigumo’s face was finally the one to show fear. “It was nonsense what that demon was speaking!”

“You’re a fucking broken record,” Inuyasha snarled, then he tightened his grip. “Maybe not broken enough.” Inuyasha leaned in so close he could smell Onigumo’s rapid and rancid breaths. “What is happening to my family?”

“I _honestly don’t know_.” Onigumo’s whimper was so different from anything Inuyasha had ever heard from him, he decided to take it at face value.

Inuyasha shoved him back down in disgust, then made to leave. But… he couldn’t. Not yet. Not until something was made very _very_ clear.

“We’re done Onigumo.” Inuyasha turned to look at him. “No more machines. No more demons. No more portals. You’re gonna forget everything we’ve ever done.” Then, he let his yōki flare _just enough_ to turn the sclera of his eyes red. “And if you do so much as _tiptoe_ near any of the Demon Hunters, I will kill you.”

Inuyasha then turned and walked away. His words were final, and he knew every complexity to Onigumo’s scent, so if the motherfucker ever tested his resolve by going within a _mile_ of the Demon Hunters, Inuyasha _would_ kill him. A benefit of being invisible to society was that he _also_ knew how to make people like Onigumo disappear.

Those moments, stomping his feet on the pavement and letting the slumped man recede further and further into the background, felt _incredible._ As if just by making that single decision, Inuyasha could feel a burden on his soul lighten. But almost as soon as Onigumo’s scent faded from his senses, he stopped.

_He will destroy the world, your world, as he destroyed his own. The way is open now. He will come!_

A quake of dread brought Inuyasha to his knees. The person that he depended on to help him find a way home was trying to bring about the end of the fucking human world by letting whatever shit was on the demon side into the human side.

His family was in trouble.  
And he was alone: a half-demon stuck in the human world.

 _Kagome_.

God, he needed her. More than he’d ever needed anyone. He needed her scent to comfort him, and her arms to wrap around him. And her voice to reassure him that everything was going to be okay. And maybe—just _maybe—_ Kagome and the other demon hunters would know what to do about Naraku and the end of the world, of _both_ worlds.

Inuyasha needed Kagome more than he needed to hide what he did. And he needed Kagome more than he needed to hide what he _was_.

Without noticing, his legs were carrying him away, toward her apartment, toward her _scent_. Because that was where he needed to be.

What the fuck was he going to say to her?

_Hi Kagome, remember that silver-haired man you saw 10 years ago? That was me. I disguised myself as a human and slept with you under that disguise. Oh also? I’ve been the one setting off the devices all over New York on the instruction of a crazy man and I think my home is now under attack. And I think yours might be under attack too._

It sounded completely insane. Then again, they were _there_ listening to the demon’s chants (who knew, maybe someone spoke Latin?). And _Kagome_ had mentioned the silver-haired man to _him_. Because that moment seemed to have imprinted as much on Kagome’s mind as it had on his.

Now, all he had to do was say the words, tell the truth, and hope.

Before Inuyasha knew it, he was staring at Kagome’s door. Soft humming from a television pricked his ears and the whispers of cherry blossoms and vanilla danced under his nose. He felt himself tremble, but he had to do this. Because Kagome was his only hope.

So he knocked. Then he listened to the way Kagome’s bare feet plodded over the wood floors of her apartment. And he tried not to pay attention to the way his heart was beating out of his chest when he heard the small gasp as she looked out her peephole.

“Yash!” Kagome tugged open her door, and gave Inuyasha a bright but confused smile.

“Kagome…” God, he wanted to run into her arms. But no. “Can I come in?”

“Sure…” Kagome eyed him suspiciously. “Usually um, people call before—“

 _Fuck,_ he wanted to pull her into his arms and bury his nose in her hair. He wanted to snuggle up against her breasts and hear her whisper that everything was going to be alright. But first, he had to be brave.

“You almost trapped a demon tonight.” Inuyasha decided to get right to the point.

“Y—yeah. Wait… were you—“ Kagome took a step back. “Did you send me that text?”

“Yeah, it was me,” Inuyasha answered.

“How the _hell_ did you know that someone was going to open a portal in the Pierre?” Kagome asked the question even as some morbid recognition came to her face. “It was…”

“Remember the night at the bar, when you were talkin’ to me about what you did and how on that one night, you swore you saw something?” Inuyasha asked, though the look of fear on Kagome’s face was chafing at him so violently he wanted to stop. “I said I believed you not only because I did, but because—”

“D—did you go to the bar to… to _find_ me?” Kagome interrupted, and her scent had started to take on the acrid edge of her fear now. It was enough to make him nauseous. And the way she was looking at him, like _unwilling prey_ being hunted, was making things even worse.

“I—I did, b—but only for information be—because,” Inuyasha pressed on; he had to. “Because I _knew_ you from your book cover, Kagome.”

“Then why did you—” Kagome continued backing away from him, tears joining the fear. “Why did you come home with me if you—?”

“Because… because I couldn’t _not._ ” Inuyasha backed a bit away from Kagome, trying to make it _clear_ that he was not there to harm her. That he was the one causing her fear was _killing him inside_. “Um… to say that you’re irresistible wouldn’t even come close.” Then a look of shame passed over Kagome’s face. No, that would not do. Not when she was the only thing he could think about. Not when she was who he would want to be with for the rest of his life. “Y—you mean… you are… uh. I’ve been.. _looking_ for—” 

“You’ve been looking for—wait.” Kagome paused mid-sentence, then her face twisted up with tormented realization. “Yash, are you the one setting off those devices?”

Her words were both true but had also missed the mark. Then again, how does a secret demon explain mateship to a human who was only discovering the tip of the iceberg of demons’ existence?

There was only one way.

“Yes,” Inuyasha answered. It was time. He knew it was time. Time to reveal the truth of what he was to Kagome. Because if he didn’t do it now, when he was laying everything else on the table, he’d never be able to try again. So, Inuyasha put his fingers on the Fuyoheki around his neck. “And I think this may give you an idea as to why.”

The only person who’d ever seen him remove his concealment charm and become demon was Onigumo, and that was because Onigumo already knew he was a demon. But, if Kagome was his mate, if he was _meant_ to come through a portal to find her, then he had to trust that she wouldn’t scream, or run away, or try to purify him. So Inuyasha leaned into his hope.

When he pressed the glowing stone and let a small spark of his sealed yōki connect with it, the spell around him began to dismantle. His eyes changed to amber, his fingernails morphed into claws, his ears headed to their rightful place atop his head, his fangs re-emerged, and his hair drained of its color back to silver. Finally, his yōki expanded out of his body: a glowing red aura that crackled proudly with its sudden lack of containment.

Inuyasha never took his eyes off of Kagome, who looked as if she’d seen a ghost. Her hand was over her mouth and her own eyes were so wide that he could see the whites entirely around her irises.

“It’s…” Kagome started, trying to settle her rapid breaths. “It’s _you_.”

“Yeah. Uh, it is me,” Inuyasha answered, still frozen in place. “And I’ll explain everything.” He took a step forward, relieved that Kagome did not take a matching step backward. “But I think something really bad is about to happen and I need your help. Kagome, _please_ help me.”


	15. The Silver-Haired Man

Ten years prior, _something_ had made Kagome’s stomach churn and the hair on the back of her neck crackle. A ring of light had flashed in the sky just ahead of her, and at the center of it, a man with silver hair. A man she could _feel_ , as if her reiki reached out and touched him.

But before she could shout, before she could so much as react, he was gone, sprinting away from her faster than any human she’d ever seen. Kagome held that man in her mind, let that man and that moment marinate and cook, driving her obsession with demons and with the other side.

Yash was the silver-haired man.  
Yash was a demon.  
Yash was setting off devices that let demons loose in New York.  
Yash disguised himself as a human.  
Yash had read Kagome’s book.  
Yash had sought her out.  
Yash had _slept with her_.

He had molten gold eyes, crested with long lashes and expressive eyebrows. His fingernails were claws, and a fang pinched his full lips as he looked apprehensively at her. The silver hair she’d remembered so distinctly was on full display, glowing in her apartment as if it were reflecting non-existent moonlight. And atop his head were two triangular ears, lined with fine fur, like those on an Akita. He was ethereally beautiful, and the moment that his yōki unveiled, it touched her reiki.

Instead of recoiling from the sensation, the connection between their auras soothed her. Like she was _home_. Its comfort forced Kagome back into the present, to the man who’d fucked her and spied on her and set evil things loose in New York, who’d _known_ who she was and followed her and—only now, when they’d nearly _caught_ a demon—did he come to her door? She tried to spark her reiki to life, to _rage_ at him for everything, but it refused to listen. As if… it had already accepted him at some deep and profound level that she wasn't quite ready yet to examine.

Since Kagome couldn’t use her reiki, she used her words.

“You’re telling me that you are opening those portals. And that you’ve been reading my book and came to spy on me _disguised as a human_ , and you want my _help_?!” Kagome was almost angry at how calm, how _comforted_ , she felt. “For _ten years_ , you knew who I was and—“

“A week,” Yash interrupted, his _ears_ drooping low enough they were nearly obscured by his hair. “I… I only realized… a week ago.”

“The night that we—” Kagome started to say, then paused.

“Yeah.” Yash’s cheeks were turning pink, and his golden eyes looked shyly down at the floor.

The night that Kagome had amazing sex with Yash. Who was a demon. _Who was the silver-haired man_.

“Yash…” Kagome didn’t know what to say. She had so many questions in her head that she didn’t know where to start.

“Inuyasha, actually.” Yash— _Inuyasha_ —shrugged. “My… My name.”

“Inuyasha,” Kagome corrected; Inuyasha’s ears perked up at the sound of his name. “Why—why now? Why ask me for help now and not, say, 5 demons ago?”

“I had a partner.” Inuyasha slumped down. “He told me where to open ‘em, and I did as I was told. I was just… tryin’ to get—”

“By releasing increasingly violent demons into the city?” Kagome interrupted, though the way Inuyasha kept looking away and wringing his clawed hands, it made that soothed part of her try to cross the room to him and pull him into a hug.

“He… he told me that it was normal. And— _fuck_ —I believed him way too long.” Inuyasha slumped down so much that he had to catch himself, and he refused to look at Kagome. “Be—because I wanted to go home. More than anything.”

“Why didn’t you come find me earlier? Why spy and work with this… _partner_ if you were so sure that something was up?” Kagome pressed. She would resist the pull; she _would_.

“He—he was the one who brought me the book,” Inuyasha whispered, sounding more defeated by the minute. “He said that… when you and Kikyo blasted that demon. That you must hate us. And maybe you would—you would do that to me too.” Inuyasha’s ears had disappeared into his hair. “I—I was scared and just sorta… went along. Because… because I was alone.”

“You met me _a week ago_ , and decided not to tell me.” Kagome needed to keep interrogating, especially given Inuyasha’s reason was… _sound_. No. She needed to force all his shields down, to push inside. “A demon came out of one of those things and maimed people. And instead of stopping, you made another device.”

“N—no, I didn’t!” Inuyasha still looked defeated, but the way his voice took on an edge of indignation interested her. “That night… that _wonderful_ night. I got a text from Onigumo. Motherfucker copied my plans and made another one of those fucking things… and… he said he figured out how to make it use yōki or reiki. And he—he _threatened you_.” Inuyasha finally turned his eyes back to Kagome, eyes that held no deception. “And there was no fucking way I was gonna let anything happen to you. Or to the others. I just… I needed to protect you… more than I needed to go home.”

Kagome knew it was time to stop resisting the pull. Inuyasha wasn’t going to hurt her. And Inuyasha was still the adorably awkward Yash that bought her a drink. Just more _honest_. So she crossed the room and pulled him in for a hug, because that was what he needed more than anything in the world at that moment.

“How about this, _Yash_.” Kagome stroked his hair as he collapsed into her, desperate for the touch. “No more secrets. Everything on the table. And…” When Inuyasha rolled his head further into her hand, she let her fingers brush the downie-soft fur on his ears. “I will try to help you.” She could feel his hot breath tickle her neck, could feel the how animated the motions of his chest were as he breathed. Kagome slowly brought Inuyasha’s eyes—his luminous _amber_ eyes—to meet hers. “A promise.”

For a moment, Inuyasha froze. He almost looked _frightened_ , of promising, of her, of their closeness. Then his face relaxed, and he nodded, at first tentatively, then more and more animatedly.

“A promise,” Inuyasha repeated, before returning his head to Kagome’s shoulder, and throwing his own arms around her. Letting her resume stroking his ear.

“I want to hear everything, but let’s start at the _really bad thing_ that you think might be about to happen,” Kagome suggested.

“Thank you,” Inuyasha whispered, still buried in Kagome’s shoulder. Then suddenly he tensed, and turned his eyes back to hers. “Where are your friends?”

“Kikyo is probably with Kagura, and Sango is probably home—wait, are they in danger?” Kagome pushed away from Inuyasha for a second. _He had a partner,_ she thought. “Inuyasha, are my friends in danger?”

“I… I don’t think so.” The look in Inuyasha’s eyes changed; there was now a glint of something dangerous in them. “I threatened him pretty good. But… you might wanna tell your friends if they see a creepy black-haired dude—”

“That looks like Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings? Holy shit, Kagura saw him.” Kagome finished Inuyasha’s sentence. “I will text them right now. Just in case.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry.” Inuyasha had returned his head to her shoulder, and was shaking it, even as he snuffled at her skin. It was… it was doing things to her.

Kagome patted Inuyasha’s head, then pulled out her phone.  
 _Stay near Kagura and Sango. Wormtongue might be on the loose._

 _Okay got it. Are you safe?_  
Kikyo’s reply was immediate.

Kagome looked at Inuyasha, and smiled.

 _Completely safe_  
She replied. Because she knew that she was.

“Now, I am going to go make some tea, and let’s talk,” Kagome offered, only to find now that Inuyasha had his arms around her, and he was resisting every effort she made to extricate herself. “Um… Not that I don’t appreciate the hug but…”

“Oh…” Inuyasha pulled away immediately, then started sheepishly wringing his hands again.

God, he was adorable. And _god, he was beautiful_. And… something else.

“How long has it been since you’ve been hugged?” Kagome probably should have been getting tea and trying to figure out how to save the world from the coming _really bad_ thing, but… the way he looked like a starving child waiting in a food line was boring a hole deep into her soul, begging her to care for him.

“N—not since I’ve been… in New York,” Inuyasha admitted, his ears drooping again.

Ten years. If Inuyasha appeared in New York with that flash of light, it meant he had not been hugged in _10 years_. But… if that were the case, then one week ago…

“And… was that night— _our night_ —your first? In New York?” Kagome finished her thought out loud. She really shouldn’t care about this. The world might be ending at that very moment… yet…

“Y—yes.” Inuyasha was back to looking down so staunchly he looked to be staring _through_ the floor. And the pink color that dusted the bridge of his nose did not help matters. Kagome wanted to hug him for the _next_ ten years, just to try to take that desperate loneliness that plagued him away. (It didn’t help that he was also adorable.)

“No wonder you wanted to get home so bad,” Kagome sighed, then opened her arms to accept him back into them; he was back immediately. “Hmm, maybe instead of tea, just some water will do.”

She let Inuyasha hold her hand as she filled two glasses of water, then headed back into her living room. She sat herself on the edge of the couch, then invited Inuyasha to join.

“Tell me everything. From start to finish,” Kagome said, letting Inuyasha curl up on the couch, and lay his head in her lap.

She didn’t know if they had time, or what was coming next. She wasn’t sure sitting quietly and stroking Inuyasha’s silver dog ears was the right course of action, but it was what her soul was telling her to do. Telling her that Inuyasha had come to the human world for a reason, that Inuyasha had found _her_ for a reason, and that Inuyasha was there, in her apartment, confessing to her _for a reason_.

So she listened.  
About the day he came to New York, scared and alone.  
About the way he slid invisibly into society.  
About the demon world, and about the borderlands, where evil lurked.  
About Onigumo giving Inuyasha the book, and reverse engineering Kikyo’s theories.  
About the locations, and how Onigumo was always the one who directed him to the _where_.  
And finally, about the words the last demon spoke (apparently in Latin).

“Who’s Naraku?” was the first question that Kagome asked.

“I dunno,” Inuyasha answered, still in her lap, letting her pet the silken soft hair on his head. “But if he’s attacking my family and trying to get to this side, I need to stop him. I… I just can’t do it by myself. I need help.”

Kagome considered his plea. It was the same plea that brought him to her apartment, and coaxed him into letting her see his true form. Inuyasha had laid everything out on the table just to get a chance to try and help his family, confessing that he was a _demon_ to someone with the power to obliterate demons.

“I’ll help you.” It sounded so natural coming out of Kagome’s mouth. Just as it felt so natural for Inuyasha’s head to lay in her lap, and for her hands to stroke his ears. “But… well…”

“But what?” Inuyasha turned his head so those golden orbs he had for eyes were fixed on her.

“If you thought I’d be hard to convince, you’re about to get one rude wake-up call,” Kagome answered.

She wanted to help Inuyasha, wanted to stop Onigumo and this _Naraku_ thing. And unfortunately for her, for _them_ , that meant convincing Kikyo, Kagura, and Sango as well.

Without warning, she was in his arms again, and he was squeezing her as if his life depended on it.

“Thank you,” Inuyasha whispered, voice so laden it came out as a whimper. “For everything.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Kagome deadpanned, then she sighed.

Yes, convincing her demon hunting friends to trust the demon she met 10 years ago, who’d been making the portal devices and setting murderous demons loose on the city with a dude who might be stalking them at that very moment was going to be a tall order. But, when she looked in his eyes and she stroked his ears and she listened to the earnestness in his voice, somehow, Kagome knew that Inuyasha was worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Tumblr](https://neutronstarchild.tumblr.com/) for more information!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Sleepless](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29632485) by [gribedli](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gribedli/pseuds/gribedli)




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